Trump’s war on blue cities is a campaign of terror
On January 7, 2026, ICE agent Jonathan Ross murdered 37-year-old U.S. citizen Renee Good in Minneapolis for the crime of not showing sufficient “respect” to law enforcement, in President Trump’s words. Her killing, while shocking, was not surprising: It is the inevitable — and arguably, desired — result of Trump’s campaign of terror in blue cities. In Minneapolis, we saw the rightwing media apparatus, centered largely on X, create racist propaganda to demonize Somalis after weeks of attacks from the president. The Trump administration then used the manufactured propaganda as a pretext to surge its paramilitary force to the city, where they escalated tension, brutalized bystanders, and abducted neighbors. When people justifiably objected to an invading force terrorizing them, federal agents responded with violence, then used that violence to justify more oppression.
Background: In 2022, President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice indicted 47 people in Minnesota on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, and bribery for fraudulently claiming hundreds of millions of dollars in food aid funds. As of late 2025, 78 people have been charged in connection to the scheme. While the majority of the indicted individuals are of Somali descent, the ringleader was a white American citizen named Aimee Bock. Furthermore, it is important to note that the majority of 78 people is not the majority of the 80,000+ Somali community in Minnesota — and it would be foolish to suggest the actions of a few dozen people can be pinned on an entire ethnic population.
Feb. 1, 2025: The U.S. military conducted the first airstrikes of Trump's second term in Somalia, targeting alleged ISIS members. Now, almost a year later, the administration has carried out over 130 airstrikes in the country, killing an unknown number of civilians. Indeed, many press releases do not even address if there were any casualties at all, target or otherwise.
June 4, 2025: Trump signed a proclamation prohibiting citizens of Somalia (and 11 other countries, mostly African) from entering the United States.
Nov. 22, 2025: Trump instructed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to end Temporary Protected Status eligibility for Somali immigrants residing in Minnesota. “Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Send them back to where they came from. It’s OVER!”
Nov. 29, 2025: The New York Times ran an article about the Covid-era fraud scheme in Minnesota, saying that “over the last five years…fraud took root in pockets of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora.”
Nov. 30, 2025: Trump ordered that Somali green cards (along with green cards issued to 18 other countries) be reexamined.
Dec. 2, 2025: At a cabinet meeting, Trump declared that he doesn’t want Somali immigrants in the U.S., saying “They contribute nothing. I don't want them in our country.” He added, "Their country is no good for a reason. Your country stinks and we don't want them in our country."
Dec. 3, 2025: Fox News’ Jesse Waters spotlighted the Covid-era fraud scandal, saying that “Minnesota gave the Somalis bucket loads of welfare but that wasn't enough…Democrats didn't lay a finger on them because of racial blackmail, so the Somalis ran their racket. Rob us, spend it on luxury apartments and cars, fund some terrorists and then pump thousands into the campaign war chests of Ilhan Omar, the AG Keith Ellison, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Small Fry.”
Dec. 19, 2025: Trump held a rally in which he asked “why is it we only take people from shithole countries?” He added, “Why can't we have some people from Norway, Sweden, Denmark… But we always take people from Somalia— places that are filthy, dirty, disgusting.”
Dec. 26, 2025: Rightwing provocateur Nick Shirley posted a video to YouTube that purports to show that various Minneapolis day cares run by Somali Americans are not providing services to children despite receiving public funding. Numerous news organizations debunked Shirley’s video, visiting the day care facilities themselves and proving the majority operational.
Dec. 26, 2025: Rightwing influencer accounts on X like End Wokeness, Eric Daugherty, and Libs of TikTok picked up on Shirley’s video and spread it to their millions of followers. Example 1, example 2, example 3.
Dec. 26 - 30, 2025: Nearly every agency in the executive branch boosted Shirley’s false claims and vowed to crack down on Minneapolis. Dept. of Education, White House, Homeland Security, Dept. of Labor, Small Business Association, and DOJ.
Dec. 29, 2025 - Jan. 2, 2026: Elon Musk amplified Shirley’s false claims and connected them to the Great Replacement Theory by falsely suggesting that Democrats welcome Somali immigrants in order to fraudulently boost their voter base. Example 1, example 2, example 3, example 4.
Dec. 30, 2025: The Department of Health and Human Services announced it had “frozen all child care payments to the state of Minnesota” due to “serious allegations” of “fraudulent daycares.”
Dec. 31, 2025: A Somali-run day care in Minneapolis was broken into and vandalized.
Jan 3, 2026: ICE murdered Renee Good.
Jan. 13, 2026: At least six career prosecutors resigned from the Justice Department after senior officials pushed for a criminal investigation into Renee Good’s widow.
In the days after Good’s murder, the Trump administration announced it was sending 2,000 additional federal agents to Minnesota to carry out the “largest immigration operation ever.”
What they have actually done is inflict acts of terror upon the local community.
- They caused a vehicular accident, arrested a screaming woman in the middle of heavy traffic, then abandoned the car in the road.
- They chased a Doordash driver into a customer’s house and threatened to break down her door and charge her with harboring if she did not turn the driver over to them.
- They shut down entire streets in order to go door to door demanding to see identification of residents, in at least one instance entering the home, weapons drawn, without a warrant. In another instance, they asked the resident to identify Hmong and Asian households in the neighborhood.
- They kidnapped a 17-year-old U.S. citizen at a Target and, upon authenticating his identity, slammed him into the ground and left him crying in a parking lot.
- They tore a woman from her car and arrested her, carrying her by her arms and legs to their SUV.
- They smashed the car window of a legal observer, dragged him from the car, and placed a knee on his neck while arresting him.
- They pepper-sprayed citizens expressing opposition to the occupation and gassed a busy commercial street with children present.
- They used the government’s mass surveillance system, filled with the private data of citizens, in order to intimidate people who were documenting their actions. In at least two instances reported by MPR, immigration agents scanned protestors’ license plates and stopped in front of their addresses, “performatively and theatrically taking pictures” of their houses.
- They menaced observers, threatening that they did not “learn their lesson” from the murder of Renee Good.
These are not the actions of “immigration enforcement.” These are the actions of state terrorism and the prelude to an authoritarian death squad. As Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social yesterday, “THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!” Without meaningful action to reign in — and ultimately abolish — ICE, there will be more Renee Goods.