Former President Donald Trump has publicly defended an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent involved in a fatal shooting in Minneapolis, while propagating an unsubstantiated claim that the victim was a "paid agitator". The incident, which occurred on Wednesday, resulted in the death of 37-year-old Renee Good.
Trump Echoes Baseless 'Paid Agitator' Allegation
Speaking at the White House on Friday, Trump supported Vice-President JD Vance's controversial assertion that Good was part of a shadowy "leftwing network" attempting to incite violence against federal officers. When questioned by Fox News, Trump stated Vance was "generally very accurate" and cited what he called evidence that someone near Good was "probably a paid agitator".
The president focused on a video of the incident, recorded by a witness, in which a person can be heard repeatedly screaming the word "shame". Trump interpreted this as proof of professional agitation. "I watched that," Trump said. "There was a woman screaming: 'Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!' She was an agitator, probably a paid agitator... so professional. She wouldn't stop screaming."
Contradicted by Video Evidence
It remains unclear if the person shouting was the videographer or a bystander. However, Trump's suggestion that only a paid operative would scream at ICE agents during raids is directly challenged by hundreds of publicly available videos from the past year, which show numerous genuine protesters reacting with horror to immigration enforcement actions.
The footage from Minneapolis shows the witness screaming "shame" twice as agents tried to remove Good from her vehicle before opening fire. Moments later, as the person recording approached the agent who fired the fatal shots, the admonition was shouted eight more times.
President Criticises Witness's Reaction
Trump also complained that the witness's vocal distress made the video difficult for him to watch. "The news sort of turned her down, turned her off because you're trying to watch - she was so loud and so crazy and just not normal," he remarked.
He further argued that a typical person witnessing such a point-blank shooting would not react in that manner. "So, I guess you could say, professional, but I didn't think she did a very good job," he added dismissively.
Concluding his remarks, Trump affirmed his administration's stance: "You have agitators, and we will always be protecting ICE, and we're always going to be protecting our border patrol and our law enforcement." This rhetoric aligns with a familiar pattern where Trump dismisses grassroots opposition to his mass deportation campaign as the work of paid operatives rather than genuine public outrage.
