Fox News chiefff political analyst Brit Hume warned Monday night that President Donald Trump and his administration are struggling to control the public narrative in Minnesota following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent, saying the government is “not winning the PR war” surrounding the incident.
Hume made the comments during an appearance on Special Report after anchor Bret Baier asked for a high-level political assessment of the fallout from the weekend shooting, which has quickly become entangled with an emerging government funding fight and deep internal frustration inside the administration over how the Department of Homeland Security responded.
Baier noted that reporting from Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin revealed serious concern among law enforcement sources about DHS’s handling of the situation. Baier quoted Melugin as saying that some sources described the response as “a case study on how not to do crisis PR,” with one source warning that DHS was “losing the base and the narrative.”
Asked to weigh in, Hume said the political consequences are already becoming clear, particularly among congressional Democrats who see an opportunity to press their advantage.
“I’ll tell you who I think agrees with that, and that’s the congressional Democrats, Senate Democrats in particular,” Hume said. He suggested Democrats may even be willing to risk another government shutdown, despite their poor performance during the last one, to continue hammering the administration over DHS and what they describe as its excesses.
Hume framed the controversy as part of a broader, ongoing political struggle involving Trump, noting that virtually every major issue eventually becomes a front in what he described as the “never-ending struggle against Donald Trump.”
Still, Hume said the administration did itself no favors over the weekend. He criticized what he called “extravagant statements” from DHS officials, ICE leadership, and the DHS secretary in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.
“I think the extravagant statements by these DHS officials, ICE officials, and the DHS secretary over the weekend didn’t play well,” Hume said. He added that available polling suggests the public believes ICE and DHS have gone too far, especially in Minnesota, where tensions are highest.
According to Hume, that perception has put the administration at a disadvantage in shaping public opinion, regardless of the underlying facts of the case.
Baier responded that it appears Trump himself recognizes the problem, pointing to the president’s decision to send border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota and his outreach to both the Minnesota governor and the mayor of Minneapolis.
Hume agreed, saying Trump has clearly adopted a more cautious and restrained posture than some of his own department heads.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt he’s taken quite a different posture from DHS officials and was, and from Kristi Noem in particular out there,” Hume said.
He noted that after the first shooting earlier in the month, Trump publicly described the situation as tragic. In the case of Pretti’s death, Hume said the president has deliberately withheld judgment and emphasized the need to wait for the investigation to conclude.
“That’s what a great many people think should have been done in the first place,” Hume said, adding that even some within DHS appear to believe officials should have waited for a full investigation before making definitive public claims about what happened.
Hume’s analysis underscored a growing recognition within conservative circles that, while enforcement policy remains popular with the Republican base, tone and timing matter — especially when lives are lost and scrutiny is intense.
[READ MORE: White House Softens Tone After Pretti Shooting as Bipartisan Pressure Mounts]
