It was reported on Monday that President Donald Trump had a long meeting behind closed doors with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, following the fallout from the killing of Alex Pretti in Minnesota on Saturday.
Now, CNN has some reporting about what was said during that meeting.
CNN reporter Kristen Holmes, per Raw Story, said on the air that the president was worried that the response made Trump “look bad.”
The White House has tacitly admitted that Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller defamed a man who was killed by their agents.
It is a scandal that they still hold their positionshttps://t.co/nmmEaEUV4v pic.twitter.com/itOmF0jAkg
— Eric Levitz (@EricLevitz) January 27, 2026
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“President Trump was agitated watching the coverage, specifically watching Secretary Noem and Bovino go up there, and what he believed was they made the administration look bad,” Holmes said on the broadcast. “Their talking points around the events that unfolded, the shooting of Alex Pretti, particularly noting that some of the things that they were saying just didn’t match up with the video.”
However, Axios reported Tuesday that the person behind the smear campaign against Pretti was Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
“Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is under fire for issuing misleading and incendiary information that claimed immigration agents killed an armed Minnesota protestor Saturday because he wanted to ‘massacre’ them,” Axios reported Tuesday. “But that language was dictated to Noem and her department by the man most responsible for the controversial operation: Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and top Trump adviser, four sources tell Axios.”
This is an indication, beyond everything else, that other forces in the Administration are leaking against Miller- and that the controversial adviser, one of the few who has worked consistently for Trump across his two presidencies, could be vulnerable in a way he never has been before.
The man behind the Minnesota ‘massacre’ misinformation: Stephen Miller
Noem is telling others she feels hung out to dry and was just following WH directionhttps://t.co/gUUWWbLPsO
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) January 27, 2026
“Stephen heard ‘gun’ and knew what the narrative would be: Pretti came to ‘massacre’ cops,” a source told Axios.
“As more video from bystanders and observers contradicted the official narrative over the weekend, Trump became agitated with what he saw on TV and social media, and decided to make changes in the Minnesota operation,” Axios said.
Miller was reportedly not present for the meeting with Noem.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
