Within minutes of the shooting, the Trump administration and right-wing influencers began disparaging the man shot by a federal immigration officer on Saturday in Minneapolis. Within minutes of Alex Pretti being shot and killed by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis on Saturday, the Trump administration, backed by right-wing influencers, launched a smear campaign against the victim, labeling him a "terrorist" and a "lunatic." Pretti, 37, was killed during a confrontation with multiple federal immigration agents. Pretti was an American citizen and a registered nurse who worked in the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a colleague who spoke to the Guardian . Video from a bystander shows Pretti was attempting to help a woman who had been pepper sprayed by an immigration agent when officers tackled him.

After an ICE agent shot and killed the Minneapolis mother, conservative media launched an all-out attack on her reputation. Her identity as a queer woman was central to it. Renee Nicole Good was a poet, a mother of three, a wife. Within hours of her death, as far as the government was concerned, she was a domestic terrorist . She appeared to have four gunshot wounds, according to The New York Times, which cited a Minneapolis Fire Department report.

In a world where ICE agents are shooting US citizens on the street, the need for militias and extremist groups like the Proud Boys to support far-right interests has evaporated. Whether it was protesting Covid lockdowns, attending school board meetings, or facing off against Black Lives Matter protesters, the far-right Proud Boys were always on hand to support Donald Trump's first term in office. When Trump left office in 2021, the group's leaders languished in jail for their role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. With reported infighting destabilizing the movement, it looked like the group's glory days were behind it. But Trump's return a year ago, and his release of all January 6 prisoners, signaled that a Proud Boy comeback could be in the cards.

Clips from creators in Minnesota have become primary evidence in attempts from the right-wing to justify ICE's surge on American cities. In the days since a masked federal agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, right-wing creators and influencers like Nick Sortor and Cam Higby have descended on Minneapolis, filming protestors and interviewing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. So far, they've produced a steady stream of content that appears designed to paint Minneapolis as a lawless city, and the actions of ICE agents like Jonathan Ross, who reportedly shot and killed Good, as self-defense. "HELL YES! ICE just SMASHED a leftist activist's car window in and pulled them out after they interfered in ICE's operations in Minneapolis. MORE OF THIS!" Sortor posted to X on Sunday, "Consequences must be STEEP!"

Conservative creators are increasingly focusing on foreign policy. Wearing combat helmets and protective vests, some of the US's most popular right-wing creators toured what they called an aid distribution hub in Gaza late last month--a trip carefully funded by Israel's foreign ministry. By way of the nonprofit Israel365, the Israeli government funneled at least $70,000 to 15 MAGA creators to bring them to Gaza's humanitarian sites, the Western Wall, and the Golan Heights, among other areas. "It sits here to spoil and be stolen," Xaviaer DuRousseau captioned a photo of himself standing in front of what he claimed was food aid on X last month . "How is that Israel's fault?"