MAGA lies can’t hide the real damage done to people like Renee Nicole Good
In the days before an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent, named by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune as Jonathan Ross, shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in the Twin Cities, MAGA world was consumed with yet another fake outrage. This time, they were pretending to be mad about the alleged victimization of the deportation forces that have been bombarding Minnesota communities. To hear the right’s version of the story, no one has ever been more victimized than these beleagured ICE agents, who were subject to the unspeakable horror of temporarily being denied lodging. A single Hilton-affiliated hotel in the Minneapolis area canceled the reservations of agents, who were in town to intimidate and arrest local residents suspected of being immigrants. Even though Hilton immediately cut ties with the hotel and apologized in an embarrassing manner to the Trump administration, ICE and the White House were not going to pass up the opportunity to once again play the victim.
The Department of Homeland Security accused Hilton of a “coordinated campaign in Minneapolis to REFUSE service to DHS law enforcement.” But one hotel does not a coordinated campaign make. No matter: MAGA never allows truth to get in the way of their self-pitying narrative. On the contrary, it was darkly funny how much the self-appointed tough guys of the right whine like spoiled brats.
“Conservative journalists are quite far behind enemy lines when we’re anywhere remotely close to Minneapolis,” bragged propagandist Nick Sorter on X in response to his fellow MAGA influencer Matt Von Swol posting, “Dude this is actually extremely dangerous work.” (The “work” in question is Sorter yelling at a Hilton employee after allegedly scoping the hotel out “for almost four hours prior to actually going in” — you know, because of all the scary, violent leftists hanging out at the Hilton.) Whatever these men think they’re proving, what they are actually demonstrating is they are the softest, saddest boys alive, incapable of understanding what real courage looks like.
This attitude has been endemic with ICE and their supporters since Donald Trump took office. The agency’s recruiting materials lure would-be agents with heavy-handed language; agents are “brave” and “resolute” men fighting “criminals and predators.” (And in case they were worried, the top of the page reassures applicants, “You do not need an undergraduate degree.”) When interfacing with the public, however, ICE and their supporters inevitably come across as whiny babies playing dress-up.
Border czar Tom Homan claims that agents need to wear masks because they don’t want to be “doxxed on social media” — in other words, have their identity known to the people they’re supposedly serving. Videos of ICE arrests spread rapidly on social media, showing that the “criminals and predators” are instead unarmed health care workers, day care workers tending small children and a 71-year-old citizen accused of pushing an agent. Only the weakest people on earth could be afraid of these arrestees, but ICE agents come at them in huge numbers, like they’re trying to take down an NFL player hopped up on PCP. The agency’s pity party has grown so ridiculous that Fox News ran multiple outraged segments because a Boston-area church displayed an anti-ICE nativity scene.
