{"id":442613,"date":"2026-02-01T10:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T10:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/442613\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T10:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T10:30:13","slug":"trump-says-feds-wont-respond-to-protests-unless-asked-in-democratic-led-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/442613\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says feds won’t respond to protests unless asked in Democratic-led cities"},"content":{"rendered":"

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> said Saturday that he has instructed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem<\/a> not to intervene in protests occurring in cities led by Democrats unless local authorities ask for federal help amid mounting criticism of his administration\u2019s immigration crackdown<\/a>. <\/p>\n

On his social media site, Trump posted that \u201cunder no circumstances are we going to participate in various poorly run Democrat Cities with regard to their Protests and\/or Riots unless, and until, they ask us for help.\u201d<\/p>\n

He provided no further details on how his order would affect operations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and DHS personnel, or other federal agencies, but added: \u201cWe will, however, guard, and very powerfully so, any and all Federal Buildings that are being attacked by these highly paid Lunatics, Agitators, and Insurrectionists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump said that in addition to his instructions to Noem he had directed \u201cICE and\/or Border Patrol to be very forceful in this protection of Federal Government Property.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later Saturday night, Trump said to reporters as he flew to Florida for the weekend that he felt Democratic cities are \u201calways complaining.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they want help, they have to ask for it. Because if we go in, all they do is complain,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

He predicted that those cities would need help, but said if the leaders of those cities seek it from the federal government, , \u201cThey have to say, \u2018Please.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has already deployed the National Guard, or federal law enforcement officials, in a number of Democratic areas, including Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, Oregon. But Saturday\u2019s order comes as opposition to such tactics has grown, particularly in Minnesota\u2019s Twin Cities region<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Trump said Saturday night that protesters who \u201cdo anything bad\u201d to immigration officers and other federal law enforcement, \u201cwill have to suffer\u201d and \u201cwill get taken care of in at least an equal way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see it, the way they treat our people. And I said, you\u2019re allowed, if somebody does that, you can do something back. You\u2019re not going to stand there and take it if somebody spits in your face,\u201d Trump said. <\/p>\n

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul have challenged a federal immigration enforcement surge in those cities, arguing that DHS is violating constitutional protections.<\/p>\n

A federal judge says she won\u2019t halt<\/a> enforcement operations as the lawsuit<\/a> proceeds. State and local officials had sought a quick order to halt the enforcement action or limit its scope. Justice Department lawyers have called the lawsuit \u201clegally frivolous.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state, particularly Minneapolis, has been on edge after federal officers fatally shot two people in the city: Renee Good<\/a> on Jan. 7 and Alex Pretti on Jan. 24<\/a>. Thousands of people have taken to the streets<\/a> to protest the federal action in Minnesota and across the country.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s border czar, Tom Homan, has suggested<\/a> the administration could reduce the number of immigration enforcement<\/a> officers in Minnesota \u2014 but only if state and local officials cooperate. Trump sent Homan to Minneapolis following the killings of Good and Pretti, seeming to signal a willingness to ease tensions in Minnesota. <\/p>\n

The president on Saturday night said he intended to speak to Homan and Noem on Sunday and he seemed to endorse the idea of immigration agents wearing body cameras or having their interactions filmed. <\/p>\n

Trump was asked by a reporter if he thought it was a good thing having lots of cameras capturing incidents with law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it would help law enforcement but I\u2019d have to talk to them,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

He went on and added: \u201cThat works both ways. But overall, I think it\u2019s 80% in favor of law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Saturday that he has instructed Homeland Security Secretary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[203372,23,1927,12,793,790,159393,4801,16950,6429,3,111,3775,191965,200479,29207,3770,6148,57672,795,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,800],"class_list":["post-442613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-alex-pretti","tag-america","tag-ap-top-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-immigration","tag-keith-ellison","tag-kristi-noem","tag-minneapolis","tag-minnesota","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-protests-and-demonstrations","tag-renee-good","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-tom-homan","tag-u-s-department-of-homeland-security","tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-u-s-national-guard","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}