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The Gist

"Chaos Isn't Enforcement": Minnesota Exposes ICE's Political Miscalculation

The Gist

Peach Fish Productions

Daily News, News

4.53.7K Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

ICE's aggressive actions in Minnesota were meant to project force and restore order, but instead produced chaos, public distrust, and a political backlash. The administration's theory was that confrontation would favor enforcement, making protesters look extreme and Democrats indulgent, yet shootings, muddled explanations, and obvious narrative gaps flipped that contrast. plus Thomas Goetz joins the show to talk about Drug Story, his podcast that tells American history one medication at a time, from Lipitor to Ozempic. We look at disease awareness ads, the profit motive behind them, and the case that pharma marketing has occasionally succeeded where public health messaging has fallen short. In the Spiel, I count how many mouse clicks and file openings it now takes just to approximate what used to be straightforward acts of cognition. Produced by Corey Wara Coordinated by Lya Yanne Video and Social Media by Geoff Craig Do you have questions or comments, or just want to say hello? Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠thegist@mikepesca.com For full Pesca content and updates, check out our website at https://www.mikepesca.com/⁠ For ad-free content or to become a Pesca Plus subscriber, check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/ For Mike's daily takes on Substack, subscribe to The Gist List https://mikepesca.substack.com/ Follow us on Social Media:⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4_bh0wHgk2YfpKf4rg40_g⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pescagist/ X https://x.com/pescami TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@pescagist To advertise on the show, contact ⁠⁠⁠⁠ad-sales@libsyn.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ or visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://advertising.libsyn.com/TheGist

Transcript

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0:00.0

It's Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 from Peach Fish Productions. It's the gist I'm Mike Pesca.

0:10.0

George Packer, writing in The Atlantic, says that a lawless regime, by definition, is illegitimate.

0:18.0

The trouble with ICE and this regime right now is not exactly lawlessness.

0:23.6

The problem is the people running it are defining the law however they see fit. The officials

0:29.4

charge with constraining the law are getting it wrong, not just ethically or constitutionally

0:34.8

or legally wrong, but wrong in ways that actively undermine their own goals.

0:40.2

So Trump was correct about the underlying diagnosis.

0:43.7

Americans don't want chaos at the border or elsewhere.

0:47.4

Border enforcement under Biden was lax, and Democrats were wrong and insisting that

0:52.2

meaningful enforcement required new legislation.

0:54.6

That was all out of their hands, supposedly.

0:57.3

Trump comes in, blows past this premise, curtails asylum, changes law enforcement priorities,

1:03.1

and sharply reduces crossings.

1:05.3

A lot of interior deportations as well.

1:08.0

And the result, initially, is a pretty big political win for him. Enforcing immigration law

1:13.6

is popular. Immigration remains Trump's strongest issue, even if it's no longer a runaway winner.

1:19.3

Where Trump faltered was not the what, but the how. He promised a focused enforcement regime

1:26.8

aimed at criminals. He did alternate between that

1:29.9

claim and broader assertions that anyone in violation was fair game. That is true. But he got in,

1:36.5

he said he'd do a thing, a thing that was popular, and for a time, he did do it. But again,

1:42.7

we go back to how, because the real test was execution.

1:46.7

His administration's theory of execution became clear quickly.

...

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