Washington — Sin. Bill Cassidy He did not simply criticize the anti-immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
After the murder Alex Geoffrey Pretty by US Border Patrol officerThe Louisiana Republican warned of broader implications for the federal government.
“The credibility of ICE and DHS is at stake,” Cassidy said books in a social media post, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security. “There must be a full joint investigation at the federal and state levels. We can trust the American people with the truth.”
Trust is one of a president’s most valuable currencies, especially in a time of crisis. During his second term as president Donald Trump It has consistently undermined the trust and credibility of major universities, national law firms and the media and taken punitive action against them. His supporters either supported these actions or remained silent.
Now the question of credibility is directed at his administration. While the criticism is not directly aimed at the president by his supporters, it is a sign of eroding trust in some of his most important policies. Administration officials Gave one account Of the Minneapolis shootings and contemporary video presented a very different picture.
In the hours after Pretty was killed, senior Trump officials including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem They were quick to paint Preeti as the instigator who “approached” the officers with a gun and acted violently. but videos From the scene, Preity is shown being pushed by an officer before six agents descend on him.
During the fight, he was holding a phone, but was never seen brandishing the 9mm semi-automatic handgun that police say he was licensed to carry. The department said investigations are continuing, although information has not yet emerged to support some of the provocative initial allegations.
“We trust that our national leaders will tell us accurately about the world that we do not directly experience but about which they have knowledge,” said Kathleen Hall Jamison, director of the Annenberg Center for Public Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. “If someone is credible in this role, their description of reality should match your perception of reality if you are an honest and just person.”
The White House appeared to be trying to ease the conflict on Monday. Trump and the Governor of Minnesota Tim Walls They both talked and suggested that their conversation was productive. Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino, who has been at the center of the administration’s aggressive campaign across the country, is expected to leave Minneapolis soon.
Meanwhile, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt sought to distance Trump from some of the initial allegations about Pretty — including allegations that he is a domestic terrorist — noting that they did not come from the president himself.
However, lawmakers from both parties — including many Republicans — have called for independent investigations and, perhaps more importantly, trust.
In his call for a “transparent and independent investigation,” Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, wrote to voters online, saying: “You trusted me, and maintaining that trust is important.”
“I disagree with the Secretary of Homeland Security’s premature response, which came before all the facts were known and undermined confidence,” he wrote.
Trump and his team have spent most of his second term scrambling Feed content to social media platforms To engage their most loyal supporters in ways that independent fact-checkers have found to be distorted or unfounded. Nah Immigration After the crackdown, administration accounts posted inappropriate photos of people who had been detained.
bezel Efforts to process images It became clear last week when the White House published A image On Page The photo was captioned in capital letters: “Far-left agitator Nekima Levy Armstrong arrested for organizing church riots in Minnesota.”
A photo posted by Noem’s account showed the same photo with Levi Armstrong wearing a neutral expression.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump and Vice President, J.D. Vancefueled false claims online that Haitians in Ohio community They would kidnap and eat pets. When pressed on the issue, Vance said he was amplifying the allegations to draw attention to the immigration policies advocated by Democrats.
“If I had to write stories so that the American media would actually care about the suffering of the American people, that’s what I would do,” Vance said at the time, quickly explaining that he had “created the focus that allowed the media to talk about this story and the suffering that the policy was causing.”
Trump is not the first president to face questions about trust.
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration was pushed back by his handling of the Vietnam War, which ushered in an era of widespread skepticism about Washington. Only 38% of Americans said last year that they had at least a fair amount of confidence in the federal government’s ability to handle domestic problems, according to Gallup polls. This is down from 70% in 1972.
Once they leave the White House, presidents are often candid about mistakes that eroded their credibility. In his memoirs, President George W. Bush He wrote about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which served as the basis for waging a deadly and costly war there.
“This was a huge blow to our credibility, to my credibility,” he wrote. “No one was more shocked or angry than me when we didn’t find the weapons. I had a sickening feeling every time I thought about it. I still do.”
president Joe Biden The failed withdrawal from Afghanistan marked a turning point in his administration. In her memoir of the 2024 campaign, the Vice President said: Kamala HarrisHe wrote about dismissing Biden’s campaign talking points after his poor debate performance.
“I wasn’t about to tell the American people that their eyes lied,” she wrote. “I will not jeopardize my credibility.”
But none of this compares to the credibility challenge facing Trump, according to Barbara Perry, co-director of the Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia, who has noted the sheer volume of lies and exaggerations that have emerged from his administration.
“Donald Trump is unique,” she said. “If you counted all the times he dribbled, it would have to outshine all the other presidencies.”