Has Trump lost the battle for Minneapolis?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 January 2026
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Donald Trump's tone on Minneapolis has changed in the last 24 hours. He’s now having conciliatory meetings and phone calls with State Governor Tim Walz and the city's Mayor Jacob Frey.
And it looks like he’s removed his Border Commander Gregory Bovino and put him out to pasture in California. What's behind the change of heart? Was it the polls? The murder of American citizens? Or the fact that his administration’s account of the killings has been flatly caught out by camera evidence. Is his ICE policy in meltdown? Or just on hold?
Later - how extremism is climbing in the UK pushed by social media algorithms - Andy Hughes from The Crime Agents joins us.
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK commercial banking, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:10.6 | This is a global player original podcast. Mr. Bovino is a wonderful man and he's a great professional. |
| 0:17.8 | He is going to very much continue to lead Customs and Border Patrol |
| 0:21.2 | throughout and across the country. Mr. Homan will be the main point of contact on the ground |
| 0:25.5 | in Minneapolis. Caroline Levitt, Trump's press secretary, is all smiles and accolades. But if you |
| 0:31.3 | listen to her words, she's actually firing Greg Bovino, Trump's borders are in Minneapolis. Trump wanted a battle with Blue State |
| 0:41.4 | Minnesota. He sent his troops in to fight this fight. Yet in the last 24 hours, it looks like |
| 0:48.6 | Trump has blinked. Has Minnesota won after all. Welcome to the newsagents. |
| 0:59.3 | The Newsagents. |
| 1:00.3 | It's Emily. |
| 1:09.6 | It's Lewis. And we said on the show yesterday that it felt as if Trump might be about to make at least a tactical retreat. |
| 1:16.6 | So obvious was the American public's distaste for all of the events and the killings that we've seen in Minnesota. And indeed, since we recorded that yesterday, that appears to be, for now at least, exactly what has happened. |
| 1:22.6 | All comes from the fallout, of course, from the fatal shooting of the 37-year-old ICU nurse, |
| 1:29.4 | Alex Preti by ICE agents. |
| 1:31.7 | There's been intense nationwide protests, |
| 1:36.3 | bipartisan and political repression from including, as I say, the Republican Party. |
| 1:40.7 | And then we discovered last night that Trump had a call with the Minnesota governor, |
| 1:45.4 | Tim Watts, someone that he has been decrying for the past month or so, |
| 1:50.9 | someone who his government has been literally suing for the last week or so, suddenly Trump says that he and Waltz are on the same page and the Border Patrol commander Gregory Bevino is set |
| 1:56.8 | to leave the state as part of that drawdown. And Trump has signalled a willingness to cooperate |
| 2:02.6 | more closely with local officials rather than escalate the standoff. And indeed, he is sending |
| 2:08.0 | his so-called Bordersar, Tom Homan, to oversee the situation, which again is being interpreted |
... |
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