All the most unhinged things that have happened in Trumpworld in the last 24 hours – including his temptation to return to a very dangerous well for US Presidents

20:23, 27 Jan 2026Updated 20:23, 27 Jan 2026

ICE has very much not left Minnesota(Image: AP)

Donald Trump appears to be spooked. Maybe. The huge and heartfelt backlash to the killing of Alex Pretti, a veterans ICU nurse who was observing protests in Minnesota over the weekend has clearly taken him – and his administration by surprise.

In the last 24 hours there have been indications that this has scared Trump off, and that he’s carefully walking back his gung ho strategy to invade Democrat states with ICE – officially to round up undocumented workers, but if it intimidates people, so much the better.

I’m skeptical. Trump is capable of holding different and contradictory views in his head depending on which idiot last put them there. But his team, particularly Deputy White House Prince of Darkness Stephen Miller are true believers. He can’t soften the ICE part of the plan without having a huge knock on effect on other parts of his overall strategy – and he definitely can’t do it without getting rid of Miller, Kristi Noem, and a bunch of other people who are way too invested in it as an ideology to pursue a different path now.

We’ll see what happens in the coming days, but as yet – aside from border force chief Greg Bovino (you know, the guy who went out and bought a gestapo coat), nobody’s lost their job over this yet. And there are other signs that this period of relative calm isn’t quite the climbdown some are hoping it will be.

1. Regime change in Iraq is apparently on Trump’s agenda

Meddling in the leadership of Iraq has never been a plan that has gone well for US presidents.

But it seems Trump is feeling the temptation to return to that (oil) well.

“I’m hearing that the Great Country of Iraq might make a very bad choice by reinstalling Nouri al-Maliki as Prime Minister,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“Last time Maliki was in power, the Country descended into poverty and total chaos. That should not be allowed to happen again. Because of his insane policies and ideologies, if elected, the United States of America will no longer help Iraq and, if we are not there to help, Iraq has ZERO chance of Success, Prosperity, or Freedom. MAKE IRAQ GREAT AGAIN!”

2. Trump walks it back, but not really

Trump has said a “big investigation” is underway into the killing of Alex Pretti.

“I want to see the investigation. I’m going to be watching over it, and I want a very honorable and honest investigation. I have to see it myself,” the president said as he left the White House, en route to Iowa where he is speaking tonight.

The issue with this is that the investigation that Trump is referring to is being run, as far as anyone is aware, by the Department for Homeland Security, whose officers were responsible for the killing.

The White House has tried to distance itself from comments made by Bovino, Noem and Miller, branding Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and potential assassin.

But asked whether DHS stood by the assessment, Tricia McLaughlin, Noem’s deputy, said: “Well, we’ll let this investigation …”

Which means no.

3. Bye bye, Bovino, hello Homan

Farewell Greg Bovino, we hardly knew ye. Bovino is reportedly leaving Minneapolis, along with some – some – of the agents deployed with him. He’s reportedly been stripped of his special title of “commander at large”, which is hilarious. And he’s heading back to his day job as a chief patrol agent along the border with Mexico.

So who will replace pound shop Heinrich Müller in charge of the Minnesota operation? Someone nice and uncontroversial hopefully.

Nah, it’s Tom Homan, the White House Border Czar. You’ll probably remember him as the guy who has been repeatedly deny accepting a bag of $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents in a sting operation, on the promise of arranging immigration-related business contracts for business executives. That Tom Homan.

Trump announced it in a Truth post: “I am sending Tom Homan to Minnesota tonight. He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there. Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me…”

A but delicious twist in the tale is that Bovino has been not only stripped of his title, but his Twitter account, where he spent a remarkable amount of time replying to people who had a pop at him. Ouch.

4. ICE has very much not left Minnesota

While things have been a little calmer in Minnesota the last couple of days, it seems like that was more to do with the insanely cold weather than anything else.

Today, ICE vehicles were reportedly parked outside a school to “spook” the parents, and masked agents were seen operating in Downtown St Paul.

Reports of a climbdown seem very premature.

Content cannot be displayed without consent5. Guess who hasn’t said ANYTHING at all since the shooting?

Mike Johnson. It’s Speaker Mike Johnson. The man who knows nothing about about any subject of controversy, no matter how many times he’s asked about it has said absolutely nothing about Minnesota since at least Saturday when the shooting took place. His Twitter is silent on the subject and he has made no public statements.

Bear in mind, because of the weird way the US line of succession is set up, even if Democrats managed to impeach Trump and JD Vance at this point…it would be Mike Johnson who succeeded them.

6. Melania goes on the promo circuit to try and stop her weird movie bombing

Melania Trump has hit the promo circuit amid reports that the documentary movie about her is set to be one of the biggest flops in history.

For those who haven’t been watching this particularly weird sequence of events, a documentary has been made about Melania Trump after Amazon MGM, in an apparent bid to curry favour with the administration, put up a $40 million budget for the film, much of which will go to the First Lady herself in licensing fees. It’s been directed by Brett Ratner, who made the Rush Hour film series – which Donald Trump has said are his favourite films.

$40 million is extraordinarily expensive for a documentary. High end docs usually top out at about $3m – and that’s for a real blockbuster. And there’s a reported £35 million in marketing on top of that, which is, again, unheard of.

As an aside, Ratner hasn’t had a lot of work since 2017, when several women came forward with allegations of misconduct against him. But he’s been pretty busy of late, not only making the Melania movie, but apparently developing Rush Hour 5…because Trump asked him to.

Melania is on course to be one of the least successful films of all time, and is projected to return just $1m of its budget in ticket sales. Of the 100 or so screens it’s opening in in the UK this weekend, almost all of them have sold zero tickets.

I will, of course, be there for the first available screening on Friday and will watch it so you don’t have to.