Flowers, candles and photographs are left at a makeshift memorial for Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Sunday. Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse, was fatally shot by U.S. Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection agents the day before. Photo by Craig Lassig/EPA
January is proving to be a politically disastrous month for the Trump administration and for the president. Why? And that is the reason. Why has no one in the administration asked the president why he is doing what he is doing?
Minneapolis and Greenland are but two of Donald Trump’s bête noirs that are destroying his credibility to govern. Three days from now, if the government shuts down, even partially, it will be his fault — no matter whom the Republicans blame. Again, why?
In Minneapolis, even a non-cynical observer would wonder why the administration would send 3,000 seemingly ill-trained, ill-prepared and undisciplined Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents into that city, especially when the CBP does not operate in urban environments.
Assuming Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who has taken on enforcement of immigration as his sacred mission, was largely responsible for the deployment, he must have known the situation would become explosive. If he did not, he should resign or be fired.
Why Minnesota? It was an easy target. The George Floyd murder during Trump’s first team led to the Black Lives Matter movement and a great deal violence. Could revenge have been part of Miller’s motivation?
The Somali fraud case was another reason. Potentially billions of dollars were stolen from taxpayers. It is unclear whether the Minnesota government fully understood and acted in accordance with the size of the scandal.
Finally, how was Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz spending much of the back end of last year? He was running for vice president. Hence, sending in the cavalry accomplished the hat trick and would lead to protests that Miller could use to punish and blame Democrats.
But a handful of bullets and images of a 5-year-old in the cold; an old man in his underwear and residents being violently handled by a highly armed, armored and masked rabble could not be reversed.
Obviously, it takes two to fight. However, why did no one in the administration ask if this massive deployment was a good or bad idea and what the consequences might have been?
If they had, Trump could have been a hero. He could have called Waltz or Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey in advance and said “We have a list of the very worst of the illegals and want to arrest or deport them. We realize this is a sanctuary city. So can we work together?”
That was not done until the killing, and I would argue the cold-blooded murder, of Alex Pretti on Saturday. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, probably influenced by her senior adviser, Corey Lewandowski, and without a shred of evidence, called Pretti a domestic terrorist. And Miller chimed in that Pretti was an assassin. The videos could not have been more damning and revealing.
To repeat: Why did no one in Trump’s inner circle, after the killing of Renee Good, and see how Immigration and Customs Enforcement and and CBP agents were acting ask the president if this was still a good idea? Fortunately, someone intervened. And the situation that was out of control in Minneapolis seems to be calming down — hopefully for good.
Then there was Greenland. The president, it is said, had eyes on Greenland for some time, even before he was first elected. But why buy it? Had no one, not even the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told the president that based on the 1951 treaty with Denmark, the United States had carte blanche on Greenland? At one time during the Cold War, the United States had 15 bases there, and one secret base was reported to have its own nuclear reactor.
Buying Greenland, aside from provoking a NATO crisis with the threat of invading and occupying it against the overwhelming majority of Greenlanders opposed to U.S. ownership, would give no advantage beyond what the treaty allows.
Why then even raise the issue, and why did none of Trump’s advisers make that case? Perhaps if they did, they knew that once the president had decided, resistance was both pointless and probably a firing offense.
Let me be blunt: Like it or not, we can have only one president at a time. Hence, it is the responsibility of all citizens — Democrats, Republicans and independents — to be supportive when or if they can. And we need to speak up when we believe any president is off course.
That leads to final “why.” Why have none of 53 senators of one party challenged the president when each knew he was off course? Why indeed?
Harlan Ullman is senior adviser at Washington’s Atlantic Council, chairman of a private company and principal author of the doctrine of shock and awe. His next book, co-written with Field Marshal The Lord David Richards, former U.K. chief of defense and due out next year, is Who Thinks Best Wins: How Decisive Strategic Thinking Will Prevent Global Chaos. The writer can be reached on X @harlankullman.
