After protest, agitation and chaos rocked Minneapolis over the weekend, President Donald Trump has offered leaders there an olive branch, and placed the political ball squarely in their court.
Trump’s offer to Mayor Jacob Frey and Gov. Tim Walz began with a very real concession, by replacing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and gung-ho Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino with the arguably more moderate Border Czar Tom Homan on the ground. The move angered many border hawks in his own party.
There are some who legitimately fear that if the hardcore agitators, who have been harassing and impeding federal agents, see this as a win, it could spread like wildfire across blue cities.
But Trump didn’t only offer carrots to the hapless leadership in the Gopher State, he also included some sticks. They came in the form of very basic demands to hand over illegal immigrants in Minnesota’s criminal justice system.
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Here are Trump’s four demands:
For Trump’s part, if these demands are met, he promises to reduce the federal footprint in Minnesota, because, frankly, many agents wouldn’t be needed anymore with cooperation from local police.
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Before we get to Frey’s deeply irresponsible reply to this offer, we should be clear that all four of these points should already be in practice, given the Constitution’s supremacy clause, as they are in most American locales.
So, the offer is basically, turn over your criminals like the law says you must, and suddenly no one is getting raided in the wild, and no “law-abiding” illegals are getting swept up in the process.
Within hours of discussing Trump’s offer with Homan, Frey took to X saying he made clear to the administration that “Minneapolis does not and will not enforce immigration law, and that we will remain focused on keeping our neighbors and streets safe.”
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In other words, “Shove it, Mr. President.”
On Wednesday, Trump fired back.
“Surprisingly, Mayor Jacob Frey just stated that Minneapolis does not, and will not, enforce Federal Immigration Laws. Could somebody in his inner sanctum please explain that this statement is a very serious violation of the Law, and that he is PLAYING WITH FIRE!” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.
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My only quibble is that Trump claims he was surprised.
For his part, Walz has thus far taken a different approach. After a meeting on Tuesday with Homan, his office offered rather pleasantly, “The Governor and Homan agreed on the need for an ongoing dialogue and will continue working toward those goals, which the President also agreed to yesterday.”
The key difference here may well be that while Walz represents the entire state, while Frey represents only loony Minneapolis where many if not most of his constituents do not want any cooperation with Trump.
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In fact, on Tuesday the capitol in neighboring and equally lefty St Paul was stormed by protesters chanting ‘ICE out now,” and “Do your job,” presumably a message to their own governor.
Walz is starting to sound like he wants an offramp from the chaos, but Frey, of George Floyd era kneeling and weeping fame, isn’t ready to let go of his role as leader of the Trump resistance, yet.
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What Frey’s obstinance in the face of a common sense solution tells Minnesota and the nation is that, for inexplicable reasons, he values protecting criminal illegal aliens over peace on his own streets.
Leadership is more than just riding waves of popular sentiment, as Trump showed by disappointing immigration hardliners with his dressing down of Noem and Bovino. Sometimes, a leader must tell his own people of the need for compromise.
Hopefully, Frey understands that Trump’s offer is the best chance he has to quell the chaos and violence that has rocked his city, assuming that is what he wants, and assuming he doesn’t want even more clashes with the feds.
If Frey refuses, then Trump’s only options will be to continue operations or allow a two-bit Minneapolis mayor to single-handedly nullify federal law, something that must not happen.
Nobody knows what Trump is actually threatening when he says Frey is “playing with fire,” but if the mayor decides to stand not only in defiance of, but arguably in rebellion to, the federal government, then Trump will no doubt have every option to end that defiance on the table.
Mayor Frey, the choice is yours.
