Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Mark Halperin Predicts Trump Administration Is About To Change Course On ICE Operations

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Political analyst Mark Halperin predicted that President Donald Trump’s administration would alter its immigration enforcement strategy during Monday’s edition of “The Morning Meeting.”

Halperin’s forecast came in the wake of Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He said on the show that his prediction was driven by poor polling data and worried phone calls the White House had been receiving.

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“I believe based on the polling data and the calls the president and others in the White House have gotten that this is now akin to what happened with Matt Gaetz to be attorney general,” Halperin said. “The president bullied through a bunch of nominees about whom members of Congress had serious doubts … He couldn’t get Gaetz through because it was a bridge too far. Now that was less about public opinion than it was about elite opinion. The senators just didn’t think that he should be the attorney general.”

“In this case the public opinion is overwhelming. It’s not just the so-called fake news polls, although every poll is the same on this matter, as are the private polls that the president has been shown by his own pollsters,” he continued. “And the number of Republicans speaking out publicly against how this has gone is nothing compared to the numbers who are privately very concerned.”

Halperin said those expressing concerns were motivated not only by political considerations but also by moral qualms following the Pretti and Renee Good shootings by law enforcement in Minneapolis.

“There are plenty of people in America who’ve conveyed to the White House and to the president, members of Congress, retired military, business leaders, ‘This is not right,'” he added.

He said that a significant portion of individuals who felt this sentiment were Trump supporters and backed the operation in Minnesota.

“[B]ut they also think that the way this is being conducted has to stop,” Halperin said. “And I’m telling you that I’m almost certain — never want to predict Donald Trump — I’d say Donald Trump is less predictable than Kim Jong-un … but I’m just telling you this is headed towards a change.”

Halperin also called Trump’s Monday announcement of sending border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota “the first step” in the administration switching its approach.

Nearly six in ten likely voters believed Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) “presence in communities is more harmful than beneficial,” according to a Emerson College Polling survey released Thursday.

Fox News congressional correspondent Bill Melugin reported on X Sunday that several federal sources involved in immigration enforcement were dissatisfied with how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) handled messaging around the Pretti shooting.

“I’m told there is extreme frustration with DHS officials going on TV and putting out statements claiming that Alex Pretti was intending to conduct a ‘massacre’ of federal agents or wanted to carry out ‘maximum damage,’ even after numerous videos appeared to show those claims were inaccurate,” Melugin wrote. “While they say it was a terrible decision to show up with a gun and inject himself into a federal law enforcement operation, there is no indication Pretti was there to murder law enforcement.”

Advisers asserted Trump took numerous calls from administration officials following the fatal shooting, The Wall Street Journal reported. Certain callers expressed concern that public opinion flipped against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement conduct.

Moreover, Trump wrote in a Monday Truth Social post that he had a positive call with Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“Governor Tim Walz called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota. It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” the president wrote. “I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession. The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I!”