When the State Terrorizes the People

The killing of Renee Good reveals, yet again, Trumpism’s violent, authoritarian essence. MAGA is at war with the reality of American society.

By Thomas Zimmer, January 11, 2026

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Renee Nicole Good, mother of three children, died mere blocks away from where she lived with her wife and her youngest son, who is 6 years old.

On Wednesday, January 7, Good and her wife, after dropping of their kid at school, were observing and protesting an ICE and Border patrol raid in their neighborhood. It was part of a surge of about 2,000 federal agents the Trump government had sent into the city to target Somali immigrants, specifically, as the Trumpist quest to “purge” the nation via mass deportation continues.

The SUV Good was driving was sideways on the street: She was perhaps attempting to block traffic – although there was plenty of space for other vehicles to go around her. We know exactly what happened next, because we have video evidence (Opens in a new window) from different angles that now even includes the killer’s perspective. The ICE agent who killed Good filmed the whole thing on his cellphone; the footage (Opens in a new window) was leaked to a far-right website, presumably in an attempt to exonerate the agent. That is astonishing, actually, as the footage so clearly supports what all the other videos already suggested: Good was executed in public.

The last moments in the life of Renee Good: While the ICE agent who is about to kill her films the car, Good’s wife lightly taunts him; Good herself says: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you,” as he comes around to film her. Good and her wife are not acting aggressively, there is no credible threat whatsoever, absolutely no need to escalate. But escalation is the only thing these masked agents of the state desire: Another ICE officer enters the scene, aggressively approaching the vehicle. Good tries to get away, steer the car away from the agents. She does so quite slowly, actually; she is obviously not trying to ram or endanger anyone. What happens if the ICE agent who has been filming on his cellphone does nothing in this situation? Nothing. Good drives off, no one gets hurt. But instead, he immediately fires three shots from close range. “Fuckin’ bitch,” he utters, before walking away.

There are different ways to adequately describe what happened there on the streets of Minneapolis: A murder, a wanton killing, a public execution of an American citizen by an agent of the Trumpist regime. We are left with one of the defining images of Trump’s authoritarian assault: On photos taken shortly after the killing, we see through the open passenger door into Good’s SUV. It’s a bit messy, as family cars always are: The glove compartment is overflowing with toys and stuffies. But next to it, the deployed airbag is drenched in blood. Another life taken, another family destroyed.

Blood martyrs and domestic terrorists

Renee Good was the victim of a government that is perpetually at war with a large portion of the American population. She was murdered one day after the Trump regime presented its official “reinterpretation,” to use a euphemistic term, of the January 6 Insurrection. On the anniversary of the assault on the Capitol, the White House launched a website (Opens in a new window) that outlines the regime-official version of the events. In this state-mandated tale, “it was the Democrats who staged the real insurrection by certifying a fraud-ridden election, ignoring widespread irregularities, and weaponizing federal agencies to hunt down dissenters.” It was a “peaceful march” of patriotic Americans, we are told, until Capitol Police escalated the situation and Ashli Babbitt was “murdered in cold blood.” More traitorous injustice, the White House claims: “Betrayal of the President,” “Stolen election certified,” “President Trump silenced,” “Mass arrests of patriotic protesters.” But, finally, when Donald Trump returned to the presidency: “Triumph over tyranny.”

Ashli Babbitt and Renee Good: Two young women shot and killed by federal officers. The former because she was part of a violent insurrection – the latter because she peacefully protested the masked agents of the state sent into her city to kidnap her neighbors. But in the upside-down world of MAGA, Babbitt is the hero, the patriot, the martyr; Good is a “domestic terrorist.” Such a clear crystallization of Trumpism as a political project: Redraw the lines of who belongs, who is legitimate, who is part of the “Volk.” If you are, you get to rule, dominate, exploit. If you are not, because you deviate from MAGA’s vision of what “real America” is supposed to be, you have forfeited not only your rights and protections as a citizen, but also your humanity, your very right to live. The America MAGA wants to impose is one of brutal hierarchies. It is ugly and violent. Dominate or be dominated.

MAGA lies and violent truths

The government and its supporters started viciously lying about what happened in Minneapolis right away. In a deranged social media post (Opens in a new window), Trump blamed the “radical Left” and attacked Good who “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE officer.” The Department of Homeland Security immediately released a statement (Opens in a new window) calling Good a “domestic terrorist.” “One of those violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them,” a DHS spokesperson (Opens in a new window) added – “an act of domestic terrorism,” DHS secretary Kristi Noem (Opens in a new window) declared. If there is a campaign going on to justify violence against a declared enemy of the MAGA regime via lies and dehumanization, you can always count on Vice President JD Vance to chime in: He would only talk about Good as “that woman” who Vance claims was “brainwashed” by “left-wing ideology.” According to Vance, “this is classic terrorism,” (Opens in a new window) committed by the “far-left fringe.”

It is not exactly breaking news that the U.S. government is in the hands of shameless liars who have zero regard for truth or morality. But it is important to emphasize that this is not merely the “normal” spin almost all politicians engage in, but regime propaganda entirely detached from the facts and utterly unconcerned with objectively observable reality. It is the duty of every democratic citizen to call it out, reject it, push back.

At the same time, however, let us not waste energy trying to convince anyone on the MAGA Right with facts. Don’t engage with the vile regime propaganda as if it was advanced in good faith. It was never meant to stand up to scrutiny, only to muddy the waters, give the rightwing media machine its marching orders, and tell the MAGA faithful what to believe. Trump, Noem, and Vance are not making factual contentions at all. They are presenting purely ideological assertions about how they want the world to work.

The only way we can find truth amid this endless stream of lies is if we see the propaganda as a window into the Trumpist psyche. What stands out is the combination of pathetic self-victimization and faux bravado. MAGA is simultaneously obsessed with their own strength: Manly men with guns who dominate and conquer and take what they want! But also fearful victims, persecuted and oppressed, suffering under the yoke of evil “wokeism,” scared to death by an unarmed woman in a family SUV. “I demand you revere me as a brave alpha male while also indulging my every insecurity,” MAGA-Man says. A toxic, dangerous mix of wounded masculinity and delusions of superhero dominance. A similar dynamic also defines MAGA in power: As the regime’s legitimacy depends as much on the notion of a persisting threat as on demonstrating the ability to act in response, there can never be a stable equilibrium or compromise. Even though the regime constantly claims success and victory in defending the nation, the homeland is endlessly under siege and can never be safe.

What MAGA has wrought

What really stands out about the regime’s response and the way the MAGA Right has reacted to the killing of Renee Good is the complete lack of empathy. They are not even pretending. And that may be the most honest thing about this movement. They don’t regret what happened in Minneapolis because they don’t regard people like Renee Good and anyone who dares to object to their idea of “real America” as fellow citizens. They are enemies, their humanity is discounted. The United States government is in the hands of people who simply don’t think Renee Good’s life was worth all that much.

Since Wednesday, Republican elected officials have publicly stated more or less explicitly that they believe Good deserved to be killed. Florida representative Randy Fine, for instance, went on Newsmax (Opens in a new window) to declare: “The Left believe they can do anything they want and we’re just supposed to sit down and take it. It’s time for Americans to say ‘enough,’ and if you get in the way of the government repelling a foreign invasion, you’re gonna end up just like that lady did yesterday.” If you “get in the way,” and you prove to be a nuisance to the regime, you deserve to be killed by the state.

Meanwhile, the regime’s propaganda machine has been hard at work reminding their audience that they are supposed to hate and fear those people: On Fox News (Opens in a new window), for instance, Jesse Waters told his viewers that Good had “pronouns in her bio” and had a “lesbian partner”; rightwing online extremist Matt Walsh (Opens in a new window) made sure to remind his audience that Good was a “lesbian agitator.” The message is clear: The state committing violence against such obnoxious deviants is good and necessary – they are the “Other” that must be subjugated and punished.

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Violence as a tool to impose “order”

For years, all strands of the Right – elected officials, the media machine, the intellectual sphere, the base – have been openly embracing and clamoring for state and vigilante violence if it is directed against anything and anyone associated with “the Left.” It is fitting that none other than violence grifter Kyle Rittenhouse sensed an opportunity to get some attention from the far-right crowd. “After thinking about it, should I travel across the state line to Minnesota?” he posted on Ex-Twitter (Opens in a new window) on Wednesday (he added a grinning face emoji too, because it’s really funny when a mother of three gets shot in the face, isn’t it?). In August 2020, you will remember, Rittenhouse killed two men and wounded a third during the protests after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. For his actions, he was widely celebrated on the Right as a patriotic hero. He was interviewed by Tucker Carlson, met with Donald Trump, far-right extremists inside Congress were dreaming about welcoming Rittenhouse as one of their own, jostling for the opportunity to have him as an intern, to promote and encourage his rise to political stardom.

The glorification of people like Rittenhouse sends a clear message: The use of violence against anything and anyone associated with “the Left” is not only justified - it is an urgently necessary “patriotic” act. Beyond just functioning as a tool for upholding political power in a narrow sense, the violence also serves as a way to enforce the underlying vision for a society in which some people – white men, in particular – have the absolute right to defend their place, status, and “comfort.” America is built on a social order that gives white men, specifically, the power to use whatever form of violence they deem necessary to “defend” themselves against all threats from “others,” real and perceived. This order is predicated on an expansive idea of what constitutes a “threat.” Black people, for instance, are seen as inherently threatening; or, in this case: An unarmed woman in a family SUV. 

Masked goons roaming the streets

The Right is defined by a political and social culture of white grievance, ethno-religious nationalism, gun fundamentalism, desire for male domination, glorified militancy, and paranoid conspiratorialism. It is bound to produce people who believe it is their patriotic duty to use violence.

These are exactly the people the regime is now actively recruiting for ICE and Border Patrol, in an effort to create a quasi-paramilitary force to serve as the regime’s violent enforcers in the streets. As part of the regime’s overall strategy to militarize the political conflict, the Department of Homeland Security has embarked on what it calls a “wartime recruitment” strategy: Via targeted advertisement campaigns, they are trying to, as the Washington Post put it in an investigative report (Opens in a new window), “recruit gun rights supporters and military enthusiasts.” They want to bolster the ranks of ICE and Border Patrol with more people “who have attended UFC fights, listened to patriotic podcasts, or shown an interest in guns and tactical gear.” In other words, the government is actively looking for rightwing manosphere dudes they can count on to be ideologically loyal. The $100 million campaign uses explicitly fascistic iconography to make sure it attracts the right clientele: “Defend the Homeland” is the key slogan – America is at war, under siege, come helps us fight off those “foreign invaders” and the enemy within.

ICE and Border Patrol have long been infamous, even among American law enforcement agencies, for their internal culture of aggression and violent impunity. The combination of a government not only enabling, but actively demanding escalation and a mass influx of bottom-of-the-barrel recruits will only make it worse. A terrorizing force of goons who are both drunken on the power the regime has given them, but also perpetually insecure, frustrated, and aggrieved. They don’t think of themselves as federal officers serving the people – they act like an occupation force, treating an American city as hostile territory and everyone in it as the enemy. Weaponized MAGA in masks. There will be more victims of state terrorism in the streets.

“Domestic terrorism”

It has been a bleak start to 2026. Much like when the regime first deployed National Guard troops in Los Angeles in early summer or when the Right was screaming for blood after the murder of Charlie Kirk in September, it feels like the country might be on the brink of crossing the line to a whole different level of authoritarian oppression. We must grapple honestly with the fact that this is indeed one realistic scenario: That the Trumpists will use the violence they have provoked and perpetrated in Minneapolis to justify further escalation.

Just like after the Kirk murder, the regime has been quick to demonize Renee Good and anyone daring to protest or object to ICE occupation in any way as members of a terrorist conspiracy. “The deadly incident that took place yesterday in Minnesota yesterday,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declared, “occurred as a result of a larger, sinister left-wing movement that has spread across our country where our brave men and women of federal law enforcement are under organized attack.” This has been the Sword of Damocles hanging over what’s left of the American Republic since September, when the Trumpists used the murder of Charlie Kirk as pretext to lay the pseudo-legal groundwork for a comprehensive crackdown. On September 22, Trump signed an executive order (Opens in a new window) designating “Antifa” as a “domestic terrorist organization,” wanting to use “Antifa” as a master signifier for everything and everyone who dares to dissent. Just three days later, on September 25, Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (Opens in a new window) (NSPM-7) on “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” instructing the entire machinery of the federal government to employ an incredibly expansive definition of “domestic terrorism” to go after any organization or individual associated with leftist “anti-fascism.” These documents were obviously intended to function as flexible instruments to go after the “enemy within.” They opened the door for virtually anyone in the United States – certainly anyone who is critical of Trump – to be harassed by the state as a domestic terrorist.

As important as it is to recognize the threat, we must also remember that the regime has so far been either unwilling or unable to actually start implementing such comprehensive oppression. In fact, over the past year, we have observed a pattern of the regime taking the country right up to the edge of full-blown autocracy… but then failing and/or proving unwilling to actually go there. Meanwhile, political and societal resistance has hardened – and MAGA has shown signs of disintegrating as Trump’s hold over his movement has weakened. The Trumpist lust for authoritarian control is limitless – but their capability to implement their desires against the realities of a pluralistic modern society and a complex political system is not. The people who control the levers of state power are lawless and cruel. But that doesn’t make them omnipotent.

What comes next?

I will leave you with three thoughts on where America might go from here. First of all, prosecuting these goons who are roaming the streets to terrorize the people must be the priority of the next Democratic administration. If and when America finds a way out of authoritarianism, not only will ICE have to be abolished: All these people will need to be held accountable in a court of law for the monstrosities they are committing – those who are ordering them as well as those who are carrying them out. I hope Democrats understand that if and when they get back to power, defaulting to “unity” politics and empty reconciliation without any real accountability would not only be morally abhorrent, but also politically suicidal: The desire for at least some semblance of justice will be overwhelming.

Secondly, the Trumpists want to project strength and dominance. But as much as they are causing – and will continue to cause! – horrible harm, I do not believe the spectacle of cruelty they are producing is helping them consolidate authoritarian rule. This is a regime driven by the desire to create social media content for their hardcore fans on the extreme Right. That is why the guy who killed Renee Good was filming everything on his phone; that is why Trump and Hegseth were monitoring reactions on Ex-Twitter (Opens in a new window) as the raid on Venezuela unfolded. On the one hand, this is an immensely dangerous situation: This is a government spurred on by the most deranged far-right online corners. But this also hampers their ability to act in tactically sound, cunning, rational ways. Trump is surrounded by people who perceive the world almost exclusively through the prism of a hermetically sealed rightwing information environment. That helps explain why they are vastly overestimating how much support they have for their cruel spectacle. ICE is extremely unpopular (Opens in a new window), support for abolishing it is quickly rising. A stable majority (Opens in a new window) of Americans believes immigration ultimately strengthens the country and favors a path to citizenship even for people who entered illegally. We have ample evidence, of course, that a lot of people are willing to support or tolerate a cruel immigration policy if it is framed as “getting the bad guys out” – they are willing to look away if they have the impression that whatever happens is being done in “orderly” fashion. But it is simply not true that a majority of Americans looks at the video of ICE shooting an unarmed woman in the face and goes: “Yeah, that seems fine.” If you only consume Fox News and hang out in far-right online spaces, as most of the people in charge of this government do, you will believe Americans are clamoring for more state violence against anyone who dares to deviate. But that is not “the people” speaking. The murder of Renee Good is much more likely to galvanize the opposition against this regime.

Finally, it is Minneapolis again. Renee Good died just about a mile away from where George Floyd was murdered. Trump himself and the people around him have been obsessed with the summer of 2020 ever since, they openly regret not invoking the Insurrection Act in order to use the military to suppress the protests. They may be extra motivated to escalate the state violence. Already they are pulling resources from elsewhere, deploying more ICE and Border Patrol agents (Opens in a new window) to Minnesota. This is a frightening situation. But the people are out in the streets nonetheless. “We had whistles. They had guns,” Becca Good, Renee’s wife, said in a statement she released on January 9. But whistles can be more powerful than guns. And the people who go out to meet those violent goons the regime is sending to terrorize their neighbors are proving it. They know they are putting themselves in danger. And yet they resist and bear witness. No matter what Donald Trump, the MAGA movement, the political Right, and the Republican Party may claim: The majority of Americans are not ready to give up on democracy just yet.

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