BREAKING: Trump Sidelines Noem, Deploys Homan as Minneapolis Crisis Spirals Out of Control

January 26th, 2026

The cracks in Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement operation are no longer hairline fractures—they’re gaping fissures threatening to bring down the entire facade. What began as Operation Metro Surge, sold to the American people as a targeted effort to remove violent criminals, has devolved into a constitutional crisis that’s now consuming the administration from within.

The killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at the VA hospital, represents more than just another tragic death at the hands of federal agents. It’s the moment when the dam finally broke. When a U.S. citizen carrying a legal firearm can be gunned down on American streets and then labeled a “domestic terrorist” by a cabinet secretary, something fundamental has shattered in our system of government.

Raw America is committed to bringing you the unvarnished truth—reporting that cuts through the spin and holds power accountable. If you believe in independent journalism that refuses to look away, subscribe today to support our work.

Trump’s emergency deployment of border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis speaks volumes about the panic rippling through the West Wing. According to his Truth Social post, Homan “has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there” and will “report directly” to the president. This isn’t standard crisis management—it’s a desperate attempt to regain control of a narrative that’s slipping through the administration’s fingers like sand. By bypassing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem entirely, Trump has effectively stripped her of authority, a humiliation that signals just how badly this operation has gone off the rails.

The internal revolt within DHS tells the real story. According to Fox News reporter Bill Melugin, more than half a dozen federal immigration officials described the department’s response as “a case study on how not to do crisis PR.” When CNN reported that multiple DHS insiders were “furious” after watching bystander footage of the shooting, with one official declaring that “the department needs a law enforcement leader, not a sycophant,” the institutional foundations were clearly crumbling. These aren’t political appointees looking to score points—they’re career professionals watching their agency’s credibility disintegrate in real time.

The video evidence has become impossible to ignore. Americans can now watch with their own eyes as federal agents operate with impunity on city streets, can see for themselves the gap between what Homeland Security claims happened and what actually occurred. Noem’s insistence that “this is a violent riot when you have someone showing up with weapons and are using them to assault law enforcement officers” rings hollow when multiple videos appear to contradict her version of events—and when Pretti had a permit to conceal-carry under Minnesota law.

Minnesota Republican Chris Madel’s decision to end his gubernatorial campaign represents a political earthquake. This isn’t a Democratic partisan taking shots—it’s a GOP candidate declaring that his own party’s national leadership has crossed a line he cannot defend. In his video announcement, Madel said he supported the original stated purpose of Operation Metro Surge but that the operation has “expanded far beyond its stated focus on true public safety threats.”

The constitutional violations Madel highlighted—authorizing officers to enter homes without judicial warrants and cutting off state investigators from accessing evidence of the shootings—aren’t minor procedural issues. They’re the hallmarks of authoritarian regimes that operate above the law. “I cannot support the national Republicans stated retribution on the citizens of our state,” Madel declared, “nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so.”

Perhaps most telling is what Trump himself wouldn’t say. According to the Wall Street Journal, the president repeatedly refused to back Noem’s claim that Pretti’s shooting was justified, declining multiple times to say whether the agent who killed him had “done the right thing.” That evasion isn’t strategic ambiguity—it’s political survival instinct. Trump understands what the polling show: Americans are turning against ICE, against these operations, against the entire enforcement apparatus he’s unleashed.

The dam has broken, and what’s pouring through are Americans of all political stripes who’ve finally seen enough. Madel put it plainly: it is “wrong” that U.S. citizens of color are living in fear and carrying passports to prove their citizenship status. Parents shouldn’t have to tell their children to carry documentation to prove they belong in their own country. Healthcare workers caring for veterans shouldn’t be gunned down and then slandered as terrorists.

The widening cracks aren’t just in Trump’s operation—they’re fractures in the Republican coalition itself. When GOP candidates would rather end their campaigns than defend their national party’s actions, when federal agents blow the whistle on their own leadership, when even Trump won’t stand behind his own cabinet secretary’s justifications, the political calculus has fundamentally shifted.

What’s emerging from the rubble isn’t despair—it’s a multiracial, cross-partisan coalition of Americans who refuse to accept that this is who we are as a country. From the DHS officials speaking out against their own department to the Republican candidate walking away from his gubernatorial race, from the Minneapolis residents documenting abuses with their cameras to the millions watching in horror across the nation, a movement is forming. It’s a movement that says constitutional rights aren’t negotiable, that American citizens deserve to live without fear in their own communities, and that no administration gets to operate above the law.

In solidarity, that movement will be heard.