Similar weekend statements from former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton effectively threw a lighted match onto the tinderbox that Minneapolis has become. Rather than acting as calming, steadying voices, their remarks only heightened tensions in an already inflamed situation. Both leaders characterized the continued deployment of ICE agents in the city as contrary to core American values.
In doing so, they chose escalation over restraint.
But their statements did something else. They revealed the cornerstone of the Democrats’ campaign strategy for regaining control of Congress in the 2026 midterms. The party is positioning opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement approach as a central issue this election season. They will hammer Republican candidates over immigration enforcement and present ICE agents as ruthless, amoral jackbooted thugs who are carrying out illegal orders issued by an illegitimate leader.
The propaganda war is on. And this was the opening salvo.
Obama’s statement — issued jointly with his wife — was sharply critical of ICE’s operation in Minneapolis, particularly over the fatal shootings of agitators Alex Pretti on Saturday and Renée Good earlier this month.
But where Obama truly goes off the rails is in his appeal to Trump administration officials to “reconsider their approach, and start finding ways to work constructively with Governor [Tim] Walz and Mayor [Jacob] Frey as well as state and local police to avert more chaos and achieve legitimate law enforcement goals.”
Federal officials have repeatedly sought cooperation with state and local authorities in Minnesota, only to be rebuffed, and federal law — under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause — takes precedence over conflicting state or local policies.
With the exception of a handful of “sanctuary” jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, most state and local officials across the country have worked with the Trump administration by providing ICE agents access to their jails, allowing removable illegal aliens to be taken into ICE custody directly from detention facilities.
[Note: This reflects how the 287(g) program and detainer cooperation typically function: when local jails agree to honor ICE detainer requests or host ICE interviews, the agency can assume custody of individuals in a controlled setting rather than at-large in the community.]
Because Minnesota officials have refused federal agents direct access to local jails, ICE and Border Patrol personnel have been forced to locate and detain individuals in public, often on city streets. This raises the risk to agents and increases the likelihood of unintended, dangerous encounters in an already volatile setting.
When officials like Walz and Frey not only refuse to cooperate with ICE but actively encourage public resistance through incendiary rhetoric, such as likening ICE to the Gestapo, the city becomes a powder keg.
Emboldened by the tacit support of Walz and Frey, some agitators clearly feel justified in ramming a “Gestapo officer” with their car or charging a group of ICE agents (involved in an operation) with a loaded pistol — and two full magazines.
Obama is gaslighting and he knows it. He also knows it doesn’t matter, because many Americans will believe him anyway.
For his part, Clinton wrote, “Over the course of a lifetime, we face only a few moments where the decisions we make and the actions we take will shape our history for years to come. This is one of them.”
He’s trying to persuade readers to view the deaths of Good and Pretti as seminal moments in American history — in fact, just as momentous as the death of George Floyd in May 2020.
Clinton incorporated the same talking points Obama had stated earlier into his own missive.
People, including children, have been seized from their homes, workplaces, and the street by masked federal agents. Peaceful protesters and citizens exercising their constitutional right to observe and document law enforcement have been arrested, beaten, teargassed, and most searingly, in the cases of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, shot and killed.All of this is unacceptable and should have been avoided. To make matters even worse, at every turn, the people in charge have lied to us, told us not to believe what we’ve seen with our own eyes, and pushed increasingly aggressive and antagonistic tactics, including impeding investigations by local authorities.
Yes, after the Russian collusion conspiracy his wife Hillary perpetrated upon candidate Donald Trump in 2016 and all of the hoaxes that followed, Clinton had the audacity to say the Trump administration is lying to us.
His statement ended with a rallying cry: “It is up to all of us who believe in the promise of American democracy to stand up, speak and show that our nation still belongs to We the People.”
Clinton’s conclusion tells us that, although opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration policy will be the key pillar of the Democrats’ midterm playbook, warning Americans about the threat Republicans pose to “American democracy” never grows old.
And finally, just in case anyone needs a reminder, here are a couple of scenes from Clinton’s own presidency.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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