Monday showed his first signs of retreat since surging federal immigration agents in Minnesota late last year — replacing the leader of the crackdown on the ground and signaling new willingness to cooperate with the state’s Democratic elected officials.

But the moves — which came amid an effort to contain the backlash over the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti and Trump officials’ early efforts to falsely brand the ICU nurse as a “domestic terrorist” — didn’t stop the administration from continuing to try to shift blame, sparking questions about how much would change on the ground.

The first test could come Tuesday. Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino and some of his agents are now expected to leave the city as soon as then, three sources familiar with the discussions told CNN, after Trump dispatched border czar Tom Homan to run the on-the-ground enforcement operation that has roiled Minneapolis. Sidelining Bovino could herald a move away from the heavy-handed approach that he had encouraged.

Some White House officials, including Trump, had grown dissatisfied with the public narrative surrounding the administration’s immigration efforts even before Pretti’s killing on Saturday sparked a scramble to contain the widening fallout, a person familiar with the conversations said.

On Monday, Trump spoke with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, setting aside his long-running feud with the Democrat to push for greater coordination and weigh potentially pulling at least some federal agents out of the state.

“It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post about the governor he had derided in recent months as “corrupt” and “grossly incompetent.”

Taken together, the moves represented the first time the White House publicly reckoned with an operation that has resulted in daily confrontations with protesters and violent scenes that have unsettled even some administration officials and close Trump allies.

“You’re going to have mistakes, you’re going to have messiness, but I think [Homeland Security] probably hasn’t handled it as well as it could have,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for limited immigration, criticizing the rush in particular to cast Pretti as the aggressor. “That’s the kind of thing you say when you have the actual evidence.”

Even beyond the intensifying fears of more violence on the ground, the people familiar said, Republicans vented that continuing such enforcement would backfire politically — overshadowing their efforts to amplify the fraud scandal that prompted the administration to surge federal agents into Minnesota in the first place, and further complicating the rest of Trump’s agenda. Indeed, Senate Democrats have now threatened to oppose a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, raising the prospect of another unpredictable government shutdown in a matter of days.

Several GOP lawmakers, including ardent Trump allies, have since called for investigations into the shooting, with some pushing for congressional hearings as well.

“Politicians, protesters, and law enforcement all have an obligation to deescalate the situation in Minnesota,” Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota wrote on X. “As with any officer-involved shooting, this demands a thorough investigation.”

Administration officials on Monday also shifted notably away from their initial portrayal of Pretti as an attacker who brandished a gun at federal agents — though they maintained that he had invited the fatal encounter.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump had not characterized Pretti as a domestic terrorist, even as she declined to explain why other administration officials — including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — had claimed he fit the definition. She emphasized that various federal agencies have since begun investigations into the shooting.

“This tragedy occurred as a result of a deliberate and hostile resistance by Democrat leaders in Minnesota,” Leavitt said, specifically naming Walz and Frey.

The attempt to moderate the administration’s rhetoric while still avoiding direct culpability underscored the challenge it faces in managing a volatile situation that threatens to consume Trump’s immigration agenda and further dent his standing on an issue that had once been his greatest strength.

Polling in recent months has found growing disapproval of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its tactics on the ground, even among those who supported the administration’s initial efforts to secure the southern border.

Those numbers have only worsened since the fatal shooting of Good, which garnered widespread attention among Americans — relatively few of whom sided with the administration’s contention it was a proper use of force. A CNN poll published earlier this month showed 56% of those surveyed saw it instead as “inappropriate,” while just 26% viewed it as “appropriate.”

Within Trump’s circle and on Capitol Hill, some Republicans viewed Homan’s appointment as an effort to stabilize an operation that had spiraled out of control and grown counterproductive under Noem and Bovino, the people familiar with the conversations said.

A veteran ICE official, Homan has advocated a strident approach to illegal immigration. But rather than the broad sweeps overseen by Bovino that have led to clashes with protesters, Homan has generally favored a greater focus on more targeted operations.

Homan is set to meet with both Walz and Frey once he arrives in Minnesota, though it’s unclear what might change on the ground. The White House has indicated that it wants greater cooperation from state and local officials in deporting undocumented immigrants. Walz and Frey have insisted they’re already working with the federal government.

The most immediate task facing Homan, though, allies said, will be easing tensions on the ground that have accumulated for weeks — and have now drawn the scrutiny of a nation increasingly turning against Trump and his deportation campaign.

“Every day is Election Day in a sense — you can’t just say we won on this platform and now we can do whatever we want for the next two years,” Krikorian said. “If people don’t like it, you’ve got to keep persuading them.” (CNN)

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