By Brian Stelter, CNN
(CNN) — Around 6:15 a.m. on Monday, “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade pitched a solution to President Trump’s growing political problem in Minnesota. “What I would do is just bring Tom Homan in,” he said.
Kilmeade, a Trump booster who knows the president often watches the morning show, volunteered the idea again at 7:15 and once more at 8:10. Homan, the border czar and a former Fox commentator, would “settle things down” and help Trump, Kilmeade said.
Maybe Trump was watching, maybe he wasn’t — but either way, he said, “I am sending Tom Homan to Minnesota tonight,” 20 minutes after Kilmeade suggested it a third time.
Kilmeade’s friendly advice for Trump reflects MAGA media’s view that the administration’s handling of Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti is damaging a just and important immigration enforcement crackdown.
Many pro-Trump TV shows, podcasters and commentators are defaulting to a defense of law enforcement — but fretting about how the wider public is reacting to the violent imagery from Minnesota.
“It’s time to de-escalate in Minneapolis,” because the current enforcement tactics “are backfiring,” the New York Post editorial board said in an editorial directed to “Mr. President” Monday morning.
The Post’s conservative editors claimed the left “wants a civil war” and Trump needs to provide “calm leadership” in response.
Both the Post and Fox News are part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, and Kilmeade read directly from the editorial on Monday’s “Fox & Friends.”
“The bottom line is, these images are not the ones that are going to help you keep the majorities,” Kilmeade said on air.
In other words, the dominant conservative critique has been about so-called optics. It’s been about narrative discipline — and how badly the administration is losing control of the visuals.
MAGA-aligned media figures have argued that even hardliners like top White House aide Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have worsened the situation by branding Pretti a “domestic terrorist,” inflaming the public and distracting from the deportations.
MAGA media backlash over ‘optics’
In the immediate aftermath of Pretti’s death on Saturday, Fox News shows and other staples of the MAGA media diet focused heavily on the Trump administration’s assertions that Pretti was a danger to the federal officers on the scene.
Fox correspondent Bill Melugin, who has covered immigration for the network for years and often gets promotional tips from Homeland Security officials, was quickly provided with a photo of the gun that Pretti was allegedly carrying. Melugin’s post on X about the gun helped to advance the pro-Trump narrative on Saturday.
Trump administration officials and allies swarmed the airwaves to blame Pretti for his own death remarkably quickly. Many of the claims, though, were at odds with the video evidence.
As the weekend proceeded, some prominent MAGA media writers and hosts pointed out the contradictions and added skepticism about the government’s claims.
This pushback was far from widespread, however. And some of the figures promoted easily disproven claims about the altercation. “It is not self-defense to run up on police and interfere with their operations and then draw a gun,” podcaster Jack Posobiec wrote on X on Saturday.
Users on X added corrections to the post explaining that Pretti did not “run up on police” or “draw a gun.”
On Sunday and into Monday, many Trump-aligned commentators and influencers underscored the hostility that federal agents face in Minneapolis, ignoring any underlying reasons for the community’s opposition.
“The media and other Democrats clearly oppose federal immigration laws and their enforcement. It’s pretty simple. And they are willing to burn the country down to keep the borders open,” Mollie Hemingway, editor in chief of The Federalist, wrote on X.
However, there were notable expressions of concern about the “messaging,” including the Trump administration’s faulty claims about the circumstances of the shooting.
National Review asserted Monday that Noem “has repeatedly demonstrated that she is incapable of speaking honestly about events like the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti.”
The publication called her a “growing liability” for Trump — and that’s what so much of the conservative media commentary is ultimately about.
Minnesota’s Democratic leaders are ultimately to blame for the shooting, these commentators have made sure to assert, but the administration’s talking points have been self-defeating.
On Sunday, Melugin wrote in a viral X post that “more than half a dozen federal sources” told him “they have grown increasingly uneasy and frustrated with some of the claims and narratives DHS pushed in the aftermath of the shooting.”
Melugin’s reporting was shared on one of Fox’s Sunday evening talk shows, where the hosts were gently critical of the administration’s choice of words.
Kilmeade talked much the same way on Monday morning, repeatedly suggesting a federal shift away from Minnesota — “there’s a lot more criminals out there” in other places, he said — and speaking Trump’s language while pitching Homan.
Kilmeade argued that Homan, once an Obama appointee, has long been loyal to Trump and “knows this stuff backwards and forwards.”
“I would love to see Tom Homan just be asked to go in there and settle things down,” Kilmeade said during the 7 a.m. hour. “He understands the president’s objective, he could come in with a fresh set of eyes.”
Trump wrote on Truth Social during the 8 a.m. hour, “Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me.”
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Fox News said Tom Homan should be sent to Minnesota — 20 minutes later, Trump did exactly that News Channel 3-12.
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