More takes on the latest ICE killing.
Heather Cox Richardson, January 24, 2026
It looked like an execution.
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Paul Krugman, 25 Jan 2026: Monsters, subtitled “And their enablers are accessories to murder”
It has been clear for a long time, to anyone willing to see, that the people running the federal government — Trump, Miller, Noem, Bovino and more — are monsters. It has been equally obvious that ICE and the Border Patrol are now filled with sadistic thugs. Yet many people — almost the entire GOP, everyone serving in the Trump administration, some Democrats, a significant part of the media — were too cowardly to admit the obvious.
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Robert Reich, 25 Jan 2026: Sunday thought: Enough, subtitled “Time for a truly massive general strike”
Enough.
I believe the shots that killed Alex Pretti and Renee Good are the shots heard ‘round the world that will topple the Trump regime.
From Minneapolis to Davos, people are joining together against Trump’s tyranny.
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John Pavlovitz, 24 Jan 2026: ICE Destroyed Alex Pretti’s Body. The Trump Administration Assassinated His Character. Conservative Americans Are Fine With That.
One of the saddest things about Alex Pretti’s murder is that I can imagine the conversations right now by my former friends, distant family members, neighbors, and people I used to pastor:
“Oh, he was threatening them!”
“He came at them with a gun. They were just defending themselves.”
“He was another Leftist extremist!”
“That’s what you get when you attack officers.”
This is the mass delusion being curated again.
They will believe Donald Trump, JD Vance, Kristi Noem, Kash Patel, Pam Bondi, and Karoline Leavitt, and not their own eyes.
They will convince themselves that the truth is not the truth, because otherwise they will need to come to terms with the reality that they are complicit in this, that they have created this monster, that they have failed their nation and their faith, that everything we’ve warned them about for ten years is now here.
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The Atlantic, Jonathan Rauch, 25 Jan 2026: Yes, It’s Fascism, subtitled “Until recently, I thought it a term best avoided. But now, the resemblances are too many and too strong to deny.”
Until recently, I resisted using the F-word to describe President Trump. For one thing, there were too many elements of classical fascism that didn’t seem to fit. For another, the term has been overused to the point of meaninglessness, especially by left-leaning types who call you a fascist if you oppose abortion or affirmative action. For yet another, the term is hazily defined, even by its adherents. From the beginning, fascism has been an incoherent doctrine, and even today scholars can’t agree on its definition. Italy’s original version differed from Germany’s, which differed from Spain’s, which differed from Japan’s.
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When the facts change, I change my mind. Recent events have brought Trump’s governing style into sharper focus. Fascist best describes it, and reluctance to use the term has now become perverse. That is not because of any one or two things he and his administration have done but because of the totality. Fascism is not a territory with clearly marked boundaries but a constellation of characteristics. When you view the stars together, the constellation plainly appears.
Then follows discussions of those stars.
- Demolition of norms
- Glorification of violence
- Might is right
- Politicized law enforcement
- Dehumanization
- Police-state tactics
- Undermining elections
- What private is public
- Attacks on news media
- Territorial and military aggression
- Transnational reach
- Blood-and-soil nationalism
- White and Christian nationalism
- Mobs and street thugs
- Leader aggrandizement
- Alternative facts
- Politics as war
- Governing as revolution
Concluding,
So the United States, once the world’s exemplary liberal democracy, is now a hybrid state combining a fascist leader and a liberal Constitution; but no, it has not fallen to fascism. And it will not.
In which case, is there any point in calling Trump a fascist, even if true? Doesn’t that alienate his voters? Wouldn’t it be better just to describe his actions without labeling him controversially?
Until recently, I thought so. No longer. The resemblances are too many and too strong to deny. Americans who support liberal democracy need to recognize what we’re dealing with in order to cope with it, and to recognize something, one must name it. Trump has revealed himself, and we must name what we see.
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Maybe this is redundant.
Vox, Zack Beauchamp, 25 Jan 2026: The killing of Alex Pretti is a grim turning point, subtitled “Trump’s authoritarianism is becoming less subtle — and more vicious.”
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Once again, conservatives always think the worst of everyone. Trump = MAGA = ICE = good, therefore anyone ICE kills must be bad. Very simplistic thinking. Never mind the video evidence.
Media Matters, Matt Gertz, 25 Jan 2026: The Fox News response to the federal government execution of Alex Pretti sets a new level of depravity
Fox News once postured as the patriotic opposition to purported government tyranny, with the network’s stars wrapping themselves in the mantle of the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution. Right now, its primary purpose is to explain to viewers why it is good that masked agents of the state are executing Americans on the street.
Comparing the analyses of the major news sources, who did investigations and looked at evidence, with the quick assumptions of Fox news. Conservative demonize the ‘other’, and they don’t do evidence. They lie in defense of their assumptions.
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Other pieces.
- JMG: Noem Lies That Man Executed By ICE Assaulted Agents (Just watch the videos)
- JMG, from WaPo: WaPo: Video Shows Victim Was Disarmed By ICE Agent Before Second Agent Shot Him Ten Times In The Back
- JMG, from Newsweek: WH Depicts Trump In Greenland With A Penguin (Of course there are no penguins in Greenland, but Trump and MAGA don’t know that. Clown show.)
- Right Wing Watch, Kyle Mantyla, 23 Jan 2026: ‘I Don’t Care How Much They Scream’: William Wolfe Backs Trump’s Violent Deportation Operations (He wants “his” country back. Once again, it seems to me that the most vocal Christians are the least Christian. Modern religions seems to be the refuge for the most primitive, tribally motivated, xenophobes.)
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Now Trump is saying that only criminals carry guns. (And therefore deserve to be murdered by ICE.) How about that, 2nd amendment fans?
