The US president says he still has confidence in Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem amid calls for her resignation.
Published January 28, 2026
President Donald Trump said his administration intends to “de-escalate” the deepening crisis in Minnesota after federal agents killed two Americans, including Alex Preti, an intensive care nurse who was shot and killed by two Border Patrol agents over the weekend.
“I don’t think this is a setback. It’s a small change,” Trump told Fox News on Tuesday.
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“We’re going to loosen up a little bit,” Trump said, referring to a massive federal immigration crackdown in Minneapolis that led to weeks of protests, the killings of Preti and Renee Good, and a standoff between state and federal officials.
Trump administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, have faced criticism from Democrats and a growing number of Republicans over their response to the Preti shooting.
Pretti was filming Border Patrol agents on his cellphone when he was shot and killed on Saturday.
The suspect, who was also a licensed gun owner with a permit to carry a weapon in public, is believed to have been wearing one at the time of the shooting, but it was confiscated by police before he was killed.
President Trump told Fox News that he still has confidence in Nom despite calls for him to resign.
Noem, who oversees both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), responded to the killing by accusing Preti of engaging in “domestic terrorism” and suggesting that an ICU nurse brandished a weapon at Border Patrol agents during an altercation.
Noem’s comments came ahead of any investigation results and broke with longstanding conventions for how U.S. officials discuss the shootings of civilians by law enforcement. Her characterization of events was also contradicted by preliminary video evidence showing that Preti did not draw a weapon at any time while being tackled and then shot by police.
CBP officials reported to Congress on Tuesday that two federal agents fired shots in the killing of Preti.
According to a notice sent to Parliament, the officers attempted to take Preeti into custody, but she resisted and a struggle ensued. During the scuffle, a Border Patrol agent yelled, “I’ve got a gun!” Officials said this multiple times in the notice, according to the Associated Press.
The notice states that a Border Patrol agent and a CBP officer each fired a Glock-style handgun.
The notice states that investigators with CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility conducted the analysis based on body-worn camera footage and a review of agency documents. U.S. law requires the agency to notify relevant Congressional committees within 72 hours of deaths in CBP custody.
