Welcome to the beat. I'm Ari Melbert, covering President Trump, polling ICE and federal agents from Minneapolis.

This is a clearly measurable step by the Trump administration amid what have been ongoing protests and backlash that has overwhelmed them in their message.

The announcement actually made by the very official that Trump sent to Minnesota after agents killed a protester and they

wanted to change the so-called face of operations there. Tom Holman, stating that 700 agents are

leaving now immediately. That is a measurable drawdown. We also want you to have the full picture.

It still leaves about 2,000 agents there, which is unusual. This whole way that Trump has been putting

ICE and DHS agents in these places has been unusual. And they are part of a larger force that we know

has been drawing the protests over everything from the masked policing to the menacing of American

citizens. Some agents caught on camera threatening people, threatening to punish First Amendment

rights, the unprofessional and untrained tactics, and what you see on your screen, the two Americans

slain, which has shocked the nation's conscience.

So before I go any further, let me just tell you what the facts are here tonight.

President Trump is reducing the forces there.

That's a fact. And the Trump administration is publicizing it.

For a very PR-conscious president, that shows the impact of these protests and the pressure and this backlash.

Because there has been, at the political level, a failure by the administration to do what it so often does, to try to

change the subject, replacing one outrage with another, with one topic with another. Trump has done

that. That's one of his well-known media political tactics, something that even his critics say,

with lament that he is effective at, because he has been a reality show star, a self-promoter,

an early Twitter adopter. Everybody knows how he does that. And it's failed here.

So now, after all of this and those deaths and these other problems,

the Trump administration is trying to shift both message and policy.

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