The People Struggle Against Tyranny

Another execution of an American citizen. A regime that has no strategy but to lash out. The struggle against Trumpist authoritarianism is only going to get bloodier.

By Thomas Zimmer, January 25, 2026

(Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

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Another state-sponsored murder in broad daylight. Another execution of an American citizen. Carried out by paramilitary goons tasked with terrorizing the people. Sent by a regime that is at war with the majority of its own population.

On Saturday morning, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37 years old, an ICU nurse at the local VA hospital, was killed by federal agents in the streets of Minneapolis.

There are so many parallels to the murder of Renee Good just 17 days earlier. So much that needed to be said then and needs to be said again now. Yet again, we know exactly what happened. ICE and Border Patrol want to operate in semi-secrecy. But the people in Minneapolis won’t let them. We have multiple witness accounts (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) as well as video evidence (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) showing us what happened from multiple angles (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and perspectives (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) – multiple frame-by-frame breakdowns (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) as well. And just like in the case of Renee Good, every new piece of evidence proves the authorities are lying and supports the same interpretation. Masked agents of the state executed an American citizen.

These are the last 60 seconds in the life of Alex Pretti. We see him standing in the middle of the street, attempting to direct traffic away from ICE and CBP. He is holding a mobile phone, filming, observing, bearing witness. He did nothing to initiative the physical confrontation. But all of a sudden, federal agents attack another observer who had been on the street. Pretti tries to help her, hold her. Then they attack another woman, push her to the ground. Pretti attempts to help her up, putting his body in-between the woman and the agents. They pepper spray him in the face immediately. At this point, Pretti and the women he was trying to help are not obstructing the road in any way anymore. The agents could have just stopped. Walked away. Instead, seven masked agents swarm Pretti, tackle him to the ground, start beating him mercilessly. It is only when he is already on the ground that they realize he is carrying a gun – legally, we now know: He had a permit. And crucially, Pretti was not pulling or brandishing the weapon at any point. Throughout the entire ordeal, he is not the aggressor even once, simply attempting to protect himself against the blows that are raining down on him. One of the agents disarms him – we can see him walk away with Pretti’s gun. Then they shoot him. Ten shots, in a matter of a few seconds, from at least two DHS agents.

They shot a man after disarming him, having tackled him to the ground, who couldn’t have possibly posed a threat. It was an execution. About 60 seconds have passed since he stood in the street, calmly directing traffic.

And then the federal agents just walked away. No effort to help the victim. No effort to preserve the crime scene. Because in their understanding, this is not a crime scene – there had not been a crime at all. This is a battlefield. They killed an enemy of the state in the middle of the battlefield. Nothing to investigate.

How we got here

The timeline of events is important. Two months ago, Minneapolis was a peaceful city. There was no crisis, no widespread unrest – no need for armed agents of the state to intervene at all. All of the violence is the result of the Trump regime opportunistically jumping on a vile smear campaign against Somali immigrants in Minnesota. 

On November 26, a 29-year-old Afghan national attacked two West Virginia National Guard members deployed to Washington, DC, killing one and severely wounding the other. The Trump government wasted no time using the attack as justification to escalate its crusade against immigrants and anyone who doesn’t belong in MAGA’s conception of “real America.” The president immediately started raging against Somali immigrants in Minnesota, who had nothing to do with the DC shooting, of course, but had been the target of racist agitation led by rightwing activists and think tanks (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) who had been focused on welfare fraud among some Somalis in Minnesota. 

In several grotesquely racist rants, the president called them (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) human “garbage” who “come from hell and do nothing but bitch. We don’t want them.” Trump always made sure to include Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar in his attacks (Öffnet in neuem Fenster): “We’re gonna go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage.” Spokespeople of the regime quickly added a bunch of lies and insinuated (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) there may have been some connection to the attack on National Guard troops in DC, even going so far as to claim the Somali community formed a “nexus of terrorism.” (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) The legal status of the targeted immigrant population did not matter at all to the regime. When asked on television why ICE was going after Somali immigrants when the vast majority of them are U.S. citizens or legal residents, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan casually asserted (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) that “there’s a large illegal Somali community there.”

The raids on Minneapolis started in early December. Then, on January 6, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would massively ramp up its activities – “Operation Metro Surge,” they call it, sending out 2,000 federal agents, likely the largest federal “immigration enforcement” operation ever. By mid-January, the contingent of ICE agents concentrated in Minneapolis-St. Paul had swelled to around 3,000 – a number only possible because DHS has been pulling resources from all over the country, focusing a large portion of ICE’s operative capacity here.

All of the carnage in Minneapolis: The direct result of a paramilitary occupation fueled by a racist smear campaign and the desire of the extremists around Donald Trump to escalate the conflict with blue communities. After yet another public execution, the city is very close to going up in flames.

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Enemies of the state

Alex Pretti was a 37-year-old white man. A U.S. citizen. By those metrics, he was part of the demographic that is least vulnerable to the Trumpist assault. But as long as MAGA is in control of the levers of state power, anyone can quickly become a target. Pretti objected, he annoyed the regime, he showed solidarity with those under attack – in an immediate sense by coming to the aid of his fellow observers, and in a broader sense by protesting the kidnapping and abduction of people the Trumpists deem “illegals.” That was enough to make him an enemy of the state. Cross-racial solidarity is something a white nationalist regime cannot tolerate. This, I am certain, further fuels the regime’s frustration and the aggression of its armed agents on the ground: That the predominantly white population in Minnesota refuses to act like “real Americans” – rejecting the Trumpist quest to purge the nation and instead choosing to act in solidarity with their non-white neighbors. To this regime, they are traitors.

Regime propaganda

While the world was finding out about yet another murder of an American citizen, the Trump government was already producing the exact type of propaganda that had followed the killing of Renee Good. There is no act of violence committed by the agents of the state they won’t defend – no victim they won’t slander and vilify. Stephen Miller (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) immediately called Pretti a “domestic terrorist” who “tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.” Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) told the press that Pretti, who didn’t initiate the confrontation and never made an attempt to draw his gun, “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” The regime’s spokespeople are not trying to convince and persuade anyone. They are not making factual contentions at all. They are presenting purely ideological assertions about how they want the world to work. And in this sense, their vile lies provide a window into how they see the world: Miller and Bovino truly regard Pretti – and anyone who dares to object in the streets of Minneapolis – as a terrorist. Here is the clearest encapsulation 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. To Miller, Bovino, and the masked goons roaming the streets in Minneapolis, Renee Good and Alex Pretti were not fellow citizens. They were enemies. Their humanity was to be discounted. They needed to be eliminated – one way or the other. They had it coming. They deserved to be killed.

What is happening in Minneapolis?

A key challenge throughout the Trump era has been to grapple honestly with what is happening instead of searching for ways to describe it as anything other than what it so clearly looks like. Luckily, those who are in charge of the government have a tendency to be rather transparent about their ambitions. As part of the regime’s overall strategy to militarize the political conflict, for instance, 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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), “recruit gun rights supporters and military enthusiasts.” They have been bolstering the ranks of ICE and Border Patrol with 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.

What these agencies are doing in Minneapolis doesn’t look like “enforcing immigration law” because that is fundamentally not what it is. ICE agents are not acting like federal officials trying to serve the community - because that’s not what they are doing. In Minneapolis, the federal government is laying siege to an American city. Trump has sent a violent goon squad of masked agents who believe they can kill with impunity. They serve as the paramilitary arm of the regime, harassing and terrorizing the local population. This is not law enforcement. It is an occupation.

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 bestowed upon them, but also perpetually insecure, frustrated, and aggrieved. Weaponized MAGA in masks. There will be more victims of state terrorism in the streets.

A society that has any aspiration to be free and democratic cannot - it must not! - tolerate the existence of an agency like ICE. In both personnel and institutionalized culture, ICE is a stronghold of violent authoritarianism, simply incompatible with the fundamental values of a democratic society. There is no technical or administrative fix for this, this is not a question of improving their training. This isn’t about policy at all. As a matter of democratic self-defense, ICE must not be tolerated. The people responsible for this occupation and the violence Minnesota is suffering – both those who are carrying it out in the streets as well as those who planned and ordered it – must be prosecuted and held to account.

What happens next?

Don’t listen to anyone making firm predictions about what happens next. The situation is highly fluid and volatile. This is a government spurred on by the most deranged far-right online corners. It is in the hands of people who perceive the world almost exclusively through the prism of a hermetically sealed rightwing information environment. Things could get out of hand quickly.

As a default, we should assume the government will keep escalating – not as part of a grand masterplan, but because they have no other strategy and nowhere else to go. The Trumpists came into power convinced they would quickly overwhelm what they believed was a liberal system so rotten that it would offer little resistance. That initial strategy failed, and MAGA has no coherent idea of how to get from where we are now to consolidated autocracy.

In that situation, frustrated ineptitude, extremist ideology, and MAGA psychology are all conspiring to make escalation almost inevitable. MAGA is ideologically and psycho-politically incapable of moderating. It is a hysterical movement that exists in a constant state of imagined emergency: Under siege, enemies everywhere – there is no room for compromise or restraint. Every crisis, every defeat only heightens their sense of being under siege. 

To the extent they have a plan, it is coming from the Stephen Miller wing of the MAGA coalition: Incite violent confrontations in blue urban centers, then use that state-induced violence as a pretext to declare an emergency, invoke the Insurrection Act, start deploying regular troops. The president, it is true, has quite a bit of leeway over when and why to invoke the Insurrection Act (although that certainly doesn’t mean he has a right to do it whenever and for whatever reason, so we could surely expect the courts to get involved, for whatever that’s worth). But even if there are troops patrolling the streets of Minneapolis: What happens then? From there, the fever dreams of Trump and Miller are not self-executing. Miller surely imagines mass detentions and a comprehensive crackdown on all protest. The Insurrection Act, however, does not suspend the constitution and civil liberties, it does not establish martial law or a military dictatorship. It would allow Trump to put regular troops in the streets to serve as law enforcement. But the question we must insist on asking is: What is the path from there to a consolidated autocracy? What are the logistics and the mechanisms that would get the Trumpists from deploying troops in a mid-sized city to the regime eliminating all political, legal, and societal resistance? Let us force ourselves – against all fears of impending doom, as understandable as they are – to really think this through.

We can also turn the question around: Why hasn’t Trump invoked the Insurrection Act yet? After all, he has been talking about it, threatening it for years. He brought it up repeatedly (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) during the 2024 campaign. Since returning to the White House, he has often claimed that he has the power “to enact a certain act” (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) whenever he wants to. So, if invoking the Insurrection Act is akin to waving a magic wand that makes Trump omnipotent and lets him install a dictatorship in an instant, why hasn’t he done it yet? The people who control the government are certainly not the most patient or a particularly prudent bunch. As a matter of practical reality, the idea that the minute Trump invokes the Insurrection Act all resistance is futile, Trump has won, Game Over is nonsense. That’s just regime propaganda. Perhaps the Trumpists, underneath all the bluster, know this too? Could it be that some in the administration are concerned that once they actually invoke the Insurrection Act, they can no longer use it as a constant threat? And if that doesn’t get their enemies to surrender, what do they have left?

The occupation of Minneapolis is binding a significant portion of the operative resources of the regime’s paramilitary units. What has Trump achieved with such a costly campaign so far? ICE certainly hasn’t broken the spirit of the people on the ground – it has actually galvanized the opposition. Local authorities are showing more resolve now than a month ago. Public opinion has been swinging hard against the regime. What is the path forward? The government is trying to break the will of the people in Minneapolis, hoping it will serve as a warning to rest of the nation. But if that fails, what’s next: Reduce Minneapolis to rubble? And how would that help them consolidate their rule across a country the size of Continental Europe if such violence is not coupled with a comprehensive strategy across all spheres of politics and society?

The Trumpist strategy, to the extent there is one, is centered around an assertion of absolute power. They hope they can convince enough people and institutions that resistance is either illegitimate (because Trump is supposedly representing the “will of the people”) or futile. A crucial part of the struggle against encroaching authoritarianism is to reject rather than perpetuate such notions. Don’t lie down, don’t acquiesce. Make them earn it. 

I do not believe the violent occupation of Minneapolis is an effective strategy towards consolidating authoritarian rule. Alas, while it may (and I mean this sincerely: may – nothing is determined, nothing is guaranteed) not lead to a stable Trump autocracy, it is certainly enough to cause tremendous harm and bloodshed. The regime has made it clear that it will continue to lash out, react to every frustration with further escalation, ratchet up the violence every time they run into an obstacle. I do not say this lightly: From here on out, the struggle against Trumpist authoritarianism is only getting bloodier.

The defense of the Republic

“Where are the protests?” I have been getting this question in almost every interview and conversation I have done with international media, politicians, and diplomats. I remember how I was asked, live on German television, mere days after No Kings II: “Why are there no protests?” And three months later, as the people of Minneapolis are standing in solidarity against the outrageous occupation of their city, I’m still getting that question all the time.

A few days ago, I mentioned on social media (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) how hard it was to kill the idea that Americans weren’t standing up to the regime. This caused really strong reactions from two sides: Many people took offence, and rightfully so; but others – not just Germans, but a lot of Americans too – kept insisting that protest was largely negligible, and certainly insufficient. I believe the European perspective on the situation in the United States is, in this particular question, increasingly warped by misconceptions about the political structure as well as the geographic reality of America. Protests are mostly decentralized, often sustained for many weeks or even months, in thousands of locations across the country.

But most importantly, I wish people who still insist “there are no protests” would take another look at the cities that have been raided by ICE: Where the communities engaged in mass resistance – normal people who must know they risk getting attacked and detained, who are willing to sacrifice their freedom and their bodies. Let’s allow ourselves to be inspired by the heroism that is on display here.

Right now, it is not an exaggeration to say, Minnesotans are putting their lives on the line to fight for their city, protect their neighbors, and defend the Republic against tyranny.

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