After weeks of the Department of Homeland Security terrorizing the people of Minneapolis by sending armed goons into the community under the guise of “immigration enforcement,” the political blowback against the operation is clearly bothering Donald Trump. The shooting deaths of two peaceful locals who were protesting the invasion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents has led the White House to attempt to create the appearance of backing off. On Monday night, “commander at large” Gregory Bovino was pushed out of his role, even though his abuse of the city clearly came at the express wishes of Trump and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.
But as Salon’s Jason Kyle Howard noted, the president has not backed down in any meaningful way in his crusade to treat blue cities as an enemy to be conquered. The ICE invasion came after the president abandoned his plan to assault cities with the National Guard. He hasn’t given up the strategy of using militarized abuse of liberal communities as sadistic propaganda to feed the MAGA base. This reprieve for Minneapolis should be understood as a temporary regrouping while the White House schemes about which city is next on their list and how they will mount their attack.
