Topline
President Donald Trump early on Friday attacked Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old man who was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents in Minnesota last week, labeling him as an “agitator” and “insurrectionist” just days after the White House backtracked on some administration officials’ characterization of the intensive care nurse as a “domestic terrorist.”
A makeshift memorial is seen after a vigil for Alex Pretti outside VA NY Harbor Healthcare System hospital.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Key Facts
In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “Agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist, Alex Pretti’s stock has gone way down.”
The president then referenced a video released on Wednesday showing a clash between Pretti and federal officers, 11 days before he was shot.
Trump wrote the video showed Pretti “screaming and spitting in the face of a very calm and under control ICE Officer and then crazily kicking in a new and very expensive government vehicle, so hard and violent, in fact, that the taillight broke off in pieces.”
Trump then claimed the ICE officer in the video was “calm and cool” in response, but failed to mention that another video of the encounter showed Pretti being tackled to the ground by federal agents.
The person who shot the video of Pretti’s earlier clash told the Minnesota Star Tribune that the federal agent’s reaction seemed “overly aggressive.”
This is the first time Trump has directly attacked Pretti after he previously refused to say if he agreed with the “domestic terrorist” label given to him by his adviser Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
What Do We Know About The Videos Of Alex Pretti’s Earlier Clash With Agents?
A pair of new videos released on Wednesday showed a scuffle between Pretti and immigration agents at a protest 11 days before he was shot and killed. The video, which Trump and several other conservative commentators have cited recently, was released by online media outlet The News Movement. The video shows Pretti yelling at a federal agent’s vehicle and appearing to spit into the car. He is then seen kicking out the car’s taillight as it pulls away. The second bystander video, published by the Minnesota Star Tribune and Associated Press, appears to show the aftermath where Pretti is tackled to the ground by federal agents. As his coat falls off, Pretti appears to slip out of the scuffle and walk away from the officers. The AP report noted that a handgun appears to be visible in his waistband during this interaction, but Pretti doesn’t reach for it at any time during the video.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2026/01/30/trump-attacks-alex-pretti-calls-him-an-agitator-and-insurrectionist/
