Breaking News from Pod Save America - Trump and MAGA TURN On Each Other After ICE Disaster

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

Trump scrambles in first interview since the ICE killing of Alex Pretti as MAGA infighting and political chaos deepen. Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer break down the latest. Go to https://www.cookunity.com/CROOKED for 50% off your first order. Thanks to CookUnity for supporting the show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Do you agree with the assessment from some of your own officials that Alex Prattie is a domestic terrorist or an assassin? Well, I haven't heard that, but certainly he shouldn't have been carrying a gun. But all of, hey, look, bottom line, everybody in this room, we view that. This is a very unfortunate incident, okay? Everyone, unless you're a stupid person. Very, very unfortunate incident. I don't like that he had a gun. I don't like that he had two fully loaded magazines.

That's a lot of bad stuff. And despite that, I say that's a very unfortunate. So we have already done away with the First Amendment under Trump's second term. He doesn't care much for the Fourth Amendment, unreasonable search and seizure. not really a big fan of the 10th Amendment, states rights. And now, it looks like he's done with the Second Amendment as well. I don't think I have trade three amendments for one in this situation. Same, same, same.

What amendment was birthright citizenship? Isn't that one going to? That's 14th, yeah, definitely not a fan of the 14th. Yeah, so we're, he said earlier on the plane, like, he should have, he's not, you're not supposed to have a gun. Like, he's been going, all of them now are just like, the real crime is if you, if you are, legally permitted to carry a gun, but you bring it to an area where border patrol or ICE just

happens to be, I guess, which is not just apprehending undocumented immigrants anymore, but just in the streets of our cities, then you can be shot to death, I guess, is what they're saying now. Do you remember the McCloskey's, John? The couple that stood outside their house in Missouri, I believe, brandishing weapons, including an assault rifle. I believe it was during a protest. It was during a protest. And they, they, Were they targeted by law enforcement? No. Do they get to speak at the Republican convention that year?

Yes, they did. They became a Republican, right-wing heroes. I mean, obviously this is nonsensical and makes no sense, and they're desperately trying to excuse the inexcusable and explain the unexplainable. But it does seem, if you were to, like, boil it down to what the logic that Trump and Cash Patel and all these other people are suggesting here is, you can have a gun to protect yourself from other people. but you cannot have a gun and protect yourself from the government, which has been the main argument.

Only if they're in the government. Only if they're in the government. That's exactly right. Because you remember the entire NRA sales pitch was buy your gun because Biden's going to be president or Barack Obama's going to be president. And so it's just, I mean, it's absurd. And I'm actually like, it's just also goes to show how Trump just can't let it go. He just can't take, he just can't accept responsibility here.

So he's got to keep pivoting back to this absurd gun argument, which all the, the video footage refutes any contention that the gun was ever attempted to be used in any way or that there was any threat there? It also speaks to why it's just so difficult to describe anything about the Trump administration's politics or MAGA's politics as conservative or even ideological in any way or talk about it in terms of hypocrisy. It is purely when we have power, we can have guns. You can't. We can get abortions. You can't.

We can commit fraud. You can't. And so really the whole thing is just, you know, the in-group, if you're part of MAGA, you can do whatever you want. There's, there are no laws. And if you are not part of MAGA, then we can tell you what to do and you don't have any rights. It's might makes right. That's this far policy. That's its domestic policy.

That's what it is. Also just then when he said, oh, I haven't heard that any of my, my aides have been referring to him as a domestic terrorist or an assassin. So, let's see, Greg Bevino did, Christine Ome did, and then Stephen Miller was the first to do it and said he was an assassin. And then J.D. Vance also retweeted Stephen Miller calling Pretti an assassin. And now we found out from Axios did some reporting that it was actually Stephen Miller concocted this whole thing, which I think you and I would have guessed.

Most people would have guessed that follow this closely. but now six sources from the White House and other places in the administration have talked to Axios. I'll just read you from the story. Under Miller's direction, DHS officials began assembling a statement based on information from other officers on scene who noted only that Prattie had a firearm. That's it. And then the source says, Stephen heard gun and knew what the narrative would be. Preddy came to massacre cops and then Vance reposted him. It also has Christine Ome in that story saying, everything I've done.

I've done it the direction of the president and Stephen, she said to a source. And I didn't notice this when I first looked at the story, but apparently the story's been up for a couple hours. And then Miller went on the record to respond in the story. So they updated the story with Miller's response. Yeah. So he is deciding to, Stephen Miller, that fucking pussy, has decided to throw border patrol under the bus, as opposed to standing by his own bullshit. Any early comments made were based on information sent to the White House through Customs and Border Patrol,

Miller told Axios. Miller said that the Minnesota operation didn't follow the guidelines established by the White House in the aftermath of the January 7th shooting of Renee Good. Specifically, Miller said the squads of CBP agents were supposed to be divided between officers engaged in the arrests of specifically targeted, quote, criminal aliens and other officers in charge of crowd control. Miller said, quote, we are examining why CBP was not following that protocol. Just this is not the biggest point here, but we also know from a lot of reporting from the New York Times, The Atlantic and others, that Trump had a two-hour meeting with Christy Noem and Corey Lewandowski that included his press secretary and his communications director. And you're telling which, so it suggested me that the meeting was therefore about the communications response to the killing. And you're telling me at no point in there, the charges of assassin domestic terrorists came up in their two-hour meeting on the communications around the response to the killing.

killing? That's ridiculous. It's also unbelievable that Miller is just thinks he's going to get away with saying that Customs and Border Patrol sent information saying that this guy was an assassin who wanted to commit a massacre because there's going to be no information that he can that he can release that shows that, that proves that. And it's a lie. And I'm sure that Customs and Border Patrol is not going to want to be thrown under the bus there either. And it is pretty clear from the story that someone just saw, oh, the guy had a gun. Pretty had a gun and so Stephen's like, great, we'll make him a domestic terrorist, just like, just like we said about Renee Good and I'll go further and call him a fucking assassin.

It is disgusting. I also can't, I can't believe that like Vance, like the tweet is still up from Miller, multiple tweets when he calls him an assassin, Vance has still reposted the tweet and they've both been tweeting other shit since then, and they've just left this up. Yeah, I mean, I don't know why you're surprised by this. I mean, yeah. They're truly soulless individuals here. Pod Save America is brought to you by Cook Unity.

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Go to cookunity.com slash crooked or use code Crooked to get 50% off your first order. That's 50% off your first order at cookunity.com slash crooked or use the code crooked. Trump was also asked about what he called a, quote, de-escalation in Minnesota, as well as border patrol commander Greg Bevino, who he threw under the bus and Christine Ome, who he did not. Let's listen. You know, Minnesota's in the news a lot, but what they don't say is that Minnesota has low numbers because of the fact that we took thousands of hardened criminals out of Minnesota, so they had good crime numbers, believe it or not.

And that's all working out. You know, we have Tom Homan there now. We put him in there. He's great. And they met with the governor, the mayor, everybody else, and we're going to de-escalate a little bit. Commander Bovino is supposedly leaving Minneapolis along with some CBP agency. Is this a pullback? I don't think it's a pullback. It's a little bit of a change. Everybody in this room that has a

business, you know, you make little changes. You know, Bovino's very good, but he's a pretty out there kind of a guy. And in some cases, that's good. Maybe it wasn't good here. Do you still have confidence in DHS Secretary Christine Nome? You brought up the success at the border. You do. Look, she was there with the border. Who closed up the border? She did with Tom Holman, with the whole group. I mean, they closed up the border. The border is a tremendous success. One of the most secure borders in the What do you think, Dan? Sometimes when you have a business and, you know, your employees are murdering people in the streets, you've got to make a little change. Yeah, it's like adjusting the menu at a restaurant.

Trump is de-escalating. He is trying to change the narrative, at least, that he's also trying to throw fairly, I think, Bovino under the bus. Bovino is, you know, he's the fall guy here. That's true. And you can see that in Stephen Miller's statement. They're going to make him take the blame for everything. and he's sticking with Christy Gnome probably because Trump is just too

like to fire her would be to admit too much failure on his part to make himself too culpable. So it's, I'm going to say I'm going to de-escalate I'm going to try to change the narrative. I need a fall guy. That's Bevino.

But Gnome is too high up on the food chain to get rid of at this moment when people are pressured me to do so. And I think it's clear that the reason Gnome asked for this two-hour meeting with her and Corey Lewandowski, her close friend and Trump

top advisor yeah yeah right at the top at the White House was because and then why she said that to Axios that like I'm just taking direction from the president and Stephen is because I think she wants to make it clear

that if she's fired she's going to be like well no I was just doing exactly what the White House told me yeah I think that's right and just she also knows and certainly Corley Lewandowski knows that Trump

for all of the bravado of the apprentice does not like to fire people And so if you come into his office and he has to see you, look you in the eyes, he's much less likely to fire you. What do you think about whether, like, whether this is a de-escalation in any way in policy? Like, do you think that is completely bullshit? We just have to wait and see. I mean, you know, I think walls and Fry are hopeful as they probably should be, right, because they're dealing with this horrible invasion and occupation. But, and I'm sure they don't like necessarily trust whatever Donald Trump and the administration is telling them.

Homan, but I wonder if they will actually reduce any of the forces because it doesn't seem like they have so far. I think it may be more a change in tactics than a, you know, an evacuation or a departure of the troops. Like, Homan has a different approach than Bovino and Christy Knoem and Corey Lewandowski and Stephen Miller, frankly. And he lost out on the internal battle. He has argued for, you know, in all the reporting says he has argued for, and I can't

believe we're quasi-defending Tom Homan here. I don't mean to do that. I know. But he's argued for a more targeted approach, that if you actually want to get, focusing entirely on, or at least primarily on criminals and people of final deportation orders, the Bovino-Nome approach is to sweep everyone up and then figure out what to do with them afterwards. Yeah. And it's a much more visual approach.

It's a much more evocative approach. Because I think what they also want to do is they want to send a message to people who are here to tell them to self-deport, people who may are thinking of coming here, to not come here, that you will be persecuted if you come here. And so it may lower the temperature somewhat in Minneapolis for now. I am curious how long they can possibly stay in Minneapolis. But we can't forget this, you know, it's not getting attention, but there are horrible things happening in Maine right now too. Right. There's an incredibly aggressive campaign happening there at the exact same time.

And so I just, I think it's wait and see, right? I don't know that this is a, you know, I think this may be a change in tactics for the time being. But I don't think Stephen Miller and therefore Donald Trump are giving up the idea that you want to deport as many people from this country. as humanly possible. You know, I think that that will stay. A Lego set is a gift that always clicks. And clicks. And clicks.

For kids who love to save the day, choose a Lego set. A gift that always clicks. There's reports out of Maine today, Portland Press Herald was reporting this, that the agents there, anyone who is, you know, the observers of ICE,

people who are organizers, protesters, have whistles, stuff like that, they are going to their homes. and telling them, I know where you live. Do not follow us. Do not try to. And these people are just, you know, exercising their First Amendment rights.

No one's impeding any kind of investigation. And they're just harassing these people by going to their home. One woman said that her children are staying somewhere else right now because an agent said, we know where you live. And if you keep following us, we'll come back. It's fucking crazy. And Greg Bevino's not there. So finally, here's Trump showing his trademark compassion.

and empathy as the nation's consular in chief. The bottom line, it was terrible. Both of them were terrible. The other was terrible, too. And I'm not sure about his parents, but I know her parents were big Trump fans. Makes me feel bad anyway, but I mean, I guess you could say even worse. They were tremendous Trump people, Trump fans.

And, you know, the daughter was, she was, I don't know if you could say radicalized, maybe radicalized, maybe not. I don't know. But I hate to see it. I hate to see that. It's one thing to think that, right? It's a completely different thing to feel entirely comfortable saying it out loud in public. Thinking in your head, bad.

Mention it in private, pretty bad. Saying it on television as if it's a completely normal thought that the severity of a tragedy is dependent upon the connection to yourself. Yeah. Well, it's like, and it's the only way you can possibly have any kind of sympathy or understanding for anyone is in how it relates directly to you and if it relates directly to you. Otherwise, there's just nothing. Because if her parents were anti-Trump people, then that it is what it is.

But if one of his supporters gets hurt in this, then something is wrong, which goes right to the core fundamental issue here, that the entire mentality of Trump, Stephen Miller, the people around him is that this is a war between people who support Donald Trump and everyone else. Yes. Yes. And if you don't get in our way and you don't and you just don't resist and you just sit in your homes quietly, then you'll be okay. You might be okay. But you might be okay. But the moment you question us, the moment you try to defeat us through electoral politics, the moment you try to organize or protest or do anything else, or, you know, if you're in the media, say something bad about us, criticize us, then all bets are off. Sorry, can't help you.

It's just, it is fucking dark, man. Fucking dark. Also, like, it's, it is wild. I don't know Governor Wallace said this today. Like, we don't know the name of the officers who shot Alex Preddy. Just don't know their names. There's still no investigation into Renee Good's killer, not a real investigation so far into Alex Preddy's killer.

Like, it is wild that federal agents have killed two American citizens, and there is just no serious. criminal investigation into either of them, even if the evidence and a jury would clear them. We're just not even going to investigate. I mean, the fact that they, that the by reports, the folks who, the agents who shot Prerey are on the job somewhere else, like even in a, in any sort of police shooting, the most likely the thing that happens next is that person, while an investigation takes place to see if the shooting was justified, that person is off the job, right?

They've returned to their desk, you know, it's looked into. Here they just set him out to, I assume, do this somewhere else in the country, as far as we know. The other thing I'm raising, because you and I talked about it on Friday's pod, but in that interview with Will Kane right there, Trump said that the story about that five-year-old boy in Minneapolis, Liam Canejo Ramos, was fake news. And then, of course, Will Cain's like, yeah, no, it's made up by the media, right? It turns out not to be true. So Liam is still in a detention facility in Texas with his father. His mother very much wants him home. His school very much wants him home.

They can't get him home. And thankfully, a federal judge in Texas just handed out a ruling blocking the deportation of Liam and his father. So the idea that this was a fucking fake story and Liam's okay and the border patrol, they're playing his favorite music and they're taking care of him well in Texas. they're about to deport him, even though it's illegal, according to a judge, to deport him and his father because they were not criminal illegal aliens.

They were people who showed up at the border and were waiting for their asylum hearing and in the process of trying to get asylum in the United States and then were just ripped from their family in Minneapolis and thrown at a detention center in Texas. So thankfully, you know, a judge ruled that. But the idea that this is like, again, if they are lying about Alex

Pretty when we can all see the video to the contrary, and they know we can see the video to the contrary. Just imagine, of course, the story they're telling about Liam and Fiverall Boy and saying that it's fake news. Of course that's not right. Of course they're lying. And every single thing else. Exactly. Everything. Every single. Like, there has never been a credibility gap like this with the government in the United States. For all the times the government has been dishonest in line. It's been many times. There is no one and nothing you can trust as government says about ice, about these shootings, about the detention centers, about Trump's corruption, about what's happening in Venezuela, about where money is going, about who is looking at whose data, you can

trust no one. Yeah. And we've never been in a moment where there were fewer people with the power to expose what is happening. Like this is a, this is a, it is a very dark situation in terms of the state of our government. And it, like, the root and branch has to be uprooted. Yes, absolutely. All right, well, that's all for now.

We'll keep you guys updated if there's any other big breaking news. As always, please subscribe to Positive America Channel on YouTube so you can keep up with us. We'll be here bringing you all the news as it comes. Bye, everyone. Bye, Dan.