Convicted felon Donald Trump marked the one-year anniversary of his return to the presidency with a rambling and nearly incoherent press conference. However, instead of addressing the issues on which his administration is failing, Trump ranted about a host of other topics.
A considerable amount of Trump’s time was dedicated to justifying the killing of Minnesota mother Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. “They’re going to make mistakes sometimes. ICE is going to be too rough with somebody—you know, they deal with rough people. Are they going to make a mistake? Sometimes it can happen,” Trump said.
Trump inaccurately claimed that Good’s father was “a tremendous Trump fan” and that “I hope he still feels that way.” This appears to actually be a reference to Good’s former father-in-law, whom conservative outlets like Fox News have touted because he said he doesn’t blame ICE for the killing.
Trump also criticized a woman, apparently Good’s wife, Becca Good, who witnessed the killing. “When [Good] was shot, there was another woman that was screaming ‘shame, shame, shame, shame,’ right? We saw it. So loud. Like a professional opera singer, she was so loud and so professional,” Trump said. The right has repeatedly pushed the made-up conspiracy theory that people protesting against ICE actions in Minnesota are paid political agitators.
In another section of his bizaare speech, Trump held up mugshots of purported criminals who were also allegedly undocumented immigrants, using the photos to justify the brutality of ICE’s actions across the country. As has often been the case during his time in the public eye, Trump made racist remarks. This time, it was his decision to call the majority-Black nation of Somalia “a backward country” where “they just have people running around, killing each other, and trying to pirate ships.” Trump and other Republicans have recently attacked the Somali immigrant community in Minnesota for attacks and racist smears, most notably singling out Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar.
In response to criticism of his deployment of armed federal troops to American cities with large minority populations, Trump said, “To me, a town, it looks better when you have military people. These are big, strong guys. The bad guys look at them and say, 'We're not gonna mess with them.'” He argued that crime has fallen in the cities where federal forces were deployed, which is generally false. In addition, crime rates were already going down under former President Joe Biden. In a weird reference, Trump said, “Your lover’s not going to be killed anymore, so he can act like a real lover,” “You can walk right through the middle of the town. And D.C. is beautiful again too.” For the record, DC has always been beautiful-- especially before military personnel began prowling tourist areas of the city (instead of where actual crime occurs).
Trump also returned to a favorite topic of his—long-debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election. He claimed the race was “rigged” and that “numbers are coming out that show it even more plainly.” None of this is true. Trump lost to Biden because more people voted for Biden.
The cringeworthy event reinforced why, after a year back in the presidency, Trump faces numerous crises of his own making. Costs are generally up, people live in fear of being harassed and killed by their own government, and the United States has become an international pariah. Even Trump’s longtime allies at Fox News have begun to admit his unpopularity is a drag on the party. But Trump’s press event makes it clear he has no intention of shutting up any time soon.
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