Melania Trump has issued one of her rare public interventions on a live political issue, calling for “unity” and urging peaceful demonstrations after two fatal shootings in Minnesota involving federal immigration agents that have sparked protests and scrutiny of enforcement operations in Minneapolis.
Speaking on Fox News programme Fox & Friends on Tuesday, the US First Lady said she was “against the violence” and asked demonstrators to “protest in peace”, as unrest has followed the killing of Alex Pretti during an encounter with federal agents over the weekend and the earlier death of Renee Nicole Good in the same state this month.
“I’m against the violence, so please, if you protest, protest in peace,” she said, adding: “We need to unify in these times,” according to the interview cited by multiple outlets.
Melania Trump said President Donald Trump had spoken with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and that officials were “working together to make it peaceful and without riots.”
Her comments came as federal agencies and the White House face intensifying questions over the circumstances of Pretti’s death. Pretti, a 37-year-old who was legally carrying a concealed firearm, was fatally shot on Saturday by federal agents during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis, according to Reuters. The shooting prompted widespread criticism and has drawn attention to initial official accounts of the confrontation.
The Department of Homeland Security has said an agent fired in self-defence after Pretti “approached” officers with a handgun and “violently resisted” an attempt to disarm him. But Reuters reported that video reviewed by the agency contradicted that description, and bystander footage has circulated widely online.
The incident has also created political friction inside the president’s own coalition, particularly among gun-rights advocates, after Trump appeared to fault Pretti for being armed. Speaking to reporters in Iowa on Tuesday, Trump said Pretti “should not have been carrying a gun” and referenced “two fully loaded magazines”, describing the death as “very unfortunate.”
Asked whether he agreed with officials who described Pretti as a domestic terrorist, Trump said he had not heard that characterisation but repeated that Pretti “certainly shouldn’t have been carrying a gun,” Reuters reported.
Gun rights groups responded by defending the legality of concealed carry and the principle of armed protest. “You absolutely can walk around with a gun, and you absolutely can peacefully protest while armed,” Luis Valdes, a spokesman for Gun Owners of America, told Reuters, calling it an American “historical tradition.” The National Rifle Association posted a statement on X saying it “unequivocally” believes law-abiding citizens have the right to bear arms where they have a legal right to be.
Pretti’s death followed the earlier fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, also 37, who was shot on 7 January by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis, according to Reuters. The shootings have become flashpoints in growing tensions around the federal government’s enforcement posture in the city, with protests escalating and calls mounting for independent investigations.
In Good’s case, Reuters reported that US officials have alleged she attempted to run the agent over with her vehicle, while her defenders say video shows she steered away. The agent named by Reuters as the shooter was Jonathan Ross. The Justice Department and ICE did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on the shooting, the news agency said.
The legal aftermath of Good’s death is already taking shape, with family members weighing civil action that could test the boundaries of federal accountability in use-of-force cases. Attorney Antonio Romanucci, who Reuters said represents Good’s family, told the agency that while many people would see video of the shooting and say “file that lawsuit”, suing the federal government is a “complex undertaking” involving legal immunity and constitutional issues.
Reuters noted that one possible route is the Federal Tort Claims Act, which can allow claims for injuries or deaths caused by federal employees acting within the scope of their jobs, although punitive damages and jury trials are barred. The report also described how a key hurdle in such cases can be the “discretionary function exception”, a government defence that can shield policy-based discretionary decisions from liability.
Against that backdrop, Melania Trump’s decision to comment publicly drew notice because she has often remained outside day-to-day political disputes. LADbible, which reported her remarks on Tuesday, described them as a rare political statement and said she made them while promoting a new film project.
The remarks have landed in a fast-moving environment in Minneapolis, where public anger has been fuelled by the perception that the victims were not posing an imminent threat when they were shot. People magazine reported that video footage “appears to show” both Pretti and Good were acting peacefully at the time of their deaths, and said footage verified by the New York Times appeared to contradict the DHS account of Pretti’s killing.
On the streets, the two deaths have become linked in the public mind, with vigils and memorials drawing mourners and demonstrators. Reuters has published images from makeshift memorials in Minneapolis, including at the site of Good’s shooting, as the city braces for further protests and as politicians face pressure to address the presence and tactics of federal agents.
Walz has publicly signalled he wants federal involvement reduced and investigations handled impartially. People reported that the governor wrote on X that he had a “productive call” with the president and said he told Trump Minnesota needed “impartial investigations” into the shootings involving federal agents, as well as a reduction in the number of federal agents in the state.
Trump, for his part, told reporters he had put border adviser Tom Homan in touch with state and city officials, according to Reuters, as the administration tries to contain political fallout ahead of elections later this year.
For now, the White House is confronting two parallel challenges: calming unrest while defending the actions of agents involved in enforcement operations that have come under intense public scrutiny. Melania Trump’s appeal to “unify” and “protest in peace” places her, unusually, into that conflict, even as the facts of both shootings and the accountability mechanisms that follow continue to be contested in public view and in legal arenas.
