Trump ignores Minnesota uproar and tries sticking to economy in Iowa as Republicans call for Noem’s resignation

President Donald Trump’s first stop on the long road to the 2026 midterm elections ended after he spoke for just over an hour with hardly any mention of the firestorm consuming his administration over the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old Minnesota man by a Border Patrol officer just days ago.

Speaking at the Horizon Events Center in Clive, Iowa, the president’s remarks, which he appeared to read directly from a teleprompter while eschewing the stream-of-consciousness “weave” that characterizes most of his public appearances. focused mostly on a defense of his administration’s economic record.

He claimed he’d spearheaded “the most dramatic one year turnaround of any country in history in terms of the speed” over his first year back in power while boasting that the American economy is “booming” even as surveys show American consumer confidence hitting the lowest levels in a decade and the job market cooling into a “low hire, low fire” labor environment due to continued uncertainty over the effects his policies will have over the long term.

Trump also bragged about agreements his administration has made under which countries will import large quantities of corn-based ethanol fuel — an important product for Iowa’s farmers — even though his profligate use of tariffs and his bellicose threats against Greenland and other NATO allies have led to many of those handshake deals being suspended or delayed as a result.

He urged the crowd of supporters who’d come to see him to vote for a slate of Republican officeholders in the midterm elections this coming November and warned that Democrats, should they take control of the House next year, would move to impeach him for an unprecedented third time and leave the country “locked … in constant battle.”

But Trump hardly made mention of the uproar in Iowa’s northern neighboring state of Minnesota, where on Monday he abruptly reversed course on a weeks-long campaign of aggression against the Democratic-led city of Minnesota by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol spearheaded by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her hand-picked “Commander-at-Large,” Greg Bovino.

On Monday, Trump dispatched White House Border Czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to meet with Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey in an effort to calm tensions in the wake of Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a Department of Veterans Affairs nurse, who’d attempted to aid a female protester who had been shoved to the ground by Border Patrol officers.

During the altercation, an agent disarmed Pretti of his legal 9 millimeter pistol — which he had a permit to carry — just before as many as ten shots were fired into his back.

Both Noem and Bovino drew the president’s ire after they were caught blatantly lying about Pretti’s intentions in the immediate aftermath of his death, with Noem claiming on Saturday the shooting had been the consequence of“a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and kill law enforcement” even though Pretti never drew his weapon and did not confront the agents before he was tackled after trying to help a woman who’d been shoved by a CBP agent.

She also falsely accused him of having “reacted violently” when agents attempted to disarm him — a claim that was easily contradicted by video of the shooting.

Bovino also made blatantly false accusations against Pretti by claiming he’d had violent intentions, telling reporters over the weekend that it “look[ed] like” Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

Thus far, Trump is standing by Noem, having told reporters before leaving the White House on Tuesday that he does not plan to ask for her resignation.

Asked whether he would press her to step down in the wake of two fatal shootings in less than a month — including Saturday’s killing of Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent — Trump simply replied: “No.”

When pressed further on whether he still has confidence in Noem’s ability to lead the sprawling Homeland Security bureaucracy that includes agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Secret Service in addition to the myriad agencies that handle immigration matters, Trump said he thinks she’s “doing a very good job” because the U.S.-Mexico border is “totally secure.”

His defense of the embattled homeland security secretary comes just one day after she and her de facto chief of staff and political adviser Corey Lewandowski met with Trump in the Oval Office for a multi-hour sit-down at her request.

Despite Trump’s professions of support, he has a long history of jettisoning advisers and associates even after vouching for them, especially when members of his own party call for him to do so.

Already, at least two GOP senators — North Carolina’s Thom Tillis and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski — have called for her to resign over the Pretti killing.