Trump Wants a Peace-with-Honor Withdrawal from Minnesota with Homan….

Can he do it?

He’s been elevated above Noem, Miller, and Everybody else….

Reporting Directly to Trump….

BUT?

It maybe that Trump STILL wants to run a Federal Show for a while more in Minnesota to keep his base happy?…

 

Why it matters: The Saturday killing of protester Alex Pretti — and the videos showing how Trump’s administration misrepresented it — drove the president to uncharacteristically de-escalate on Monday.

• “It’s f**ked, and POTUS knew he needed to unf**k it,” an administration adviser told Axios.

Zoom in: Trump’s most significant move came Monday morning, when he dispatched White House border czar Tom Homan to the Twin Cities — and essentially cut Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem out of the shambolic Minneapolis operation.

• Soon after Homan’s appointment, DHS announced that the hard-charging head of the controversial immigration efforts, U.S. Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, would leave the state and return to his old job leading his sector in El Centro, Calif.
• “He’s a cowboy, and it was a mess. It was only escalation, and no one was going to back down,” a source familiar with the operations said. “Homan going is a good thing. Someone needed to step in.”

Driving the news: Trump spent Sunday lamenting his administration’s botched response to Pretti’s shooting, including news conferences by Bovino and Noem in which they seemed “callous” about the man’s death, a confidant who spoke with Trump told Axios.

• The White House wants to get the Minnesota immigration operation on solid footing as Senate Democrats threaten to shut down the federal government Friday because of the administration’s controversial immigration enforcement efforts.
• “So it’s Tom Homan to the rescue,” the confidant said.

Zoom out: A career immigration official who served under President Obama and Trump during his first term, Homan has a measure of credibility with the Democrats who run Minnesota that Noem — a committed Republican partisan — does not.

• Homan plans to meet with law enforcement on the ground, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both of whom have accused immigration agents of terrorizing Minnesotans and called on the agents to leave.
• Trump spoke with Walz and Frey on Monday and struck a new tone of cooperation.

A person familiar with Homan’s plans said he’ll help steer operational decisions and media presence.

• Homan “understands the silos that every single person has to operate in,” a second source familiar with DHS operations said, referring to Homan’s experience as a local police officer, CBP and ICE agent.
• An administration official said Homan is likely to emphasize more targeted enforcement efforts with fewer confrontational tactics than Bovino, whose roving squads of masked officers were caught on video accosting residents such as two Target employees, both U.S. citizens, who were roughed up earlier this month.

The big picture: Trump wants a peace-with-honor withdrawal from Minnesota that doesn’t look like his immigration surge was a loss driven by botched law enforcement efforts under Bovino, and plummeting poll numbers.

• The administration wants Minnesota law enforcement to help with traffic and crowd control so that DHS can make immigration arrests without interference from the well-organized protesters in the Twin Cities.
• Walz and local officials want an end to the heavy-handed federal immigration tactics that became a hallmark of Bovino’s time there….

More….