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Noem: ‘Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen Miller’

January 28, 2026 | | Print Article

Troubling messaging about a fatal confrontation with federal law enforcement in Minnesota appeared to invoke a blame game as a cabinet member pointed toward a presidential adviser.

Unlike the death of Renee Good, which left many asserting a clear case of self-defense, the lethal force employed against Alex Pretti was hardly so cut and dry. That didn’t stop members of President Donald Trump’s administration from treating it as such, leaving Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem allegedly faulting White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller for her initial statements.

“Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen,” the cabinet member was reported to have said, according to Axios.

In the wake of the incident, DHS, Noem, and U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino echoed statements that “an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun,” and “this looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

At the same time, while elected Democrats leapt at the opportunity to demonize U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Miller responded directly to Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy’s (D) calls for ICE to lose funding and vacate Minneapolis by posting to X, “An assassin tried to murder federal agents, and this is your response.”

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Following the president’s dispatch of border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota, and Bovino’s departure, Miller released a new statement to the media on Tuesday with a notably different perspective on Pretti’s death.

“We are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following protocol,” CNN reported the adviser expressing while also asserting the White House “provided clear guidance to DHS that the extra personnel that had been sent to Minnesota for force protection should be used for conducting fugitive operations to create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptors.”

Of course, with messaging for the midterm elections on the line, House Democrats were quick to use tragedy to their advantage, as it was reported that they intend to open an investigation into Noem to make a case for impeachment. As of Monday, 145 of them were said to have signed onto Illinois Rep. Robin Kelly’s (D) resolution to that end.

Amid pushes to see someone held accountable other than the rhetoric-spewing leftist leaders who’ve continually encouraged “good trouble” against federal law enforcement, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Axios, “Stephen Miller is one of President Trump’s most trusted and longest-serving aides. The president loves Stephen.”

A source also told the outlet, “Others within the White House attempted to clean up the DHS statement prior to it being sent, but it had already been disseminated.”

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Meanwhile, the chief executive, said by the New York Times to have held a two-hour meeting with Noem at the White House on Monday, reaffirmed his confidence in his DHS secretary on Tuesday.

“I think she’s doing a very good job. The border is totally secure,” he told reporters outside the White House, as illegal entries were curbed, unlike the open border crisis under the Biden-Harris administration. “So you have to remember those things. People forget, as soon as you accomplish something, it goes into history, and nobody ever wants to talk about it.”

Kevin Haggerty
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