Trump didn’t declare defeat in Minneapolis; he switched to a smarter strategy

 Andrea Widburg - American Thinker  "What he did was take a pragmatic look at the current board and adjust the pieces so that he can win the midterm."

"The result of this new policy is that, with detentions now functioning smoothly in Minnesota, the media and other Democrats have lost their most important headlines and their potential for new martyrs." AW

. . . "Significantly, Trump understands that the most powerful force in America today isn’t the government; it’s the media. This is true even though several outlets are in financial trouble and the public despises them all.

"I’ve written before about ordinary Americans’ cognitive dissonance, so I won’t belabor the point. Suffice it to say that, even though Americans know the media is lying and even though the media is losing audience, the combined weight of search engines, AI, and news apps makes sure that only leftist headlines reach the average American.

"Trump doesn’t deny the obvious: The media have won the narrative in Minneapolis. While we know that ICE agents who were hit by cars and threatened by violent men with guns were fully within their rights to shoot to kill, most Americans know what the headlines blare: “Trump’s out-of-control Gestapo killing ordinary nurses and mommies.”

"A clear-eyed Trump recognizes that these headlines have turned the population against ICE’s efforts, even as the public still wants illegal aliens gone.

"Considering all these factors, what’s Trump to do? The one thing he can’t do is double down on ICE enforcement in Minneapolis, which will only dig more deeply the polling hole that he and the Republicans find themselves in on an issue the public actually supports. Moreover, it’s a given that, if Trump pushes harder with ICE, the left’s useful idiots will invariably do something to get killed, and Trump’s signature issue will become even less popular.

"So, instead of going in harder, Trump is going in smarter. He’s appointed Tom Homan, a steady, calm man, to handle the tinderbox, instead of the flashy Kristi Noem. (Even if Noem made the right decisions about how to approach Minneapolis—and I don’t know if she did—the media have so successfully painted her as a showboating, fascist Barbie doll, with too much makeup, too much hair, and clothes that are too tight, that Trump cannot save her.)" . . .

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