The Week: The Alex Pretti Aftermath | January 30, 2026

Plus: America's historically low murder rate.

THIS EDITION OF THE WEEK IS SPONSORED BY NATIONAL REVIEW JANUARY 30, 2026 NATIONAL REVIEW JAN 30, 2026 ◼ Whatever our taxes are paying for, it's evidently not clearing the roads.   ◼ United States Customs and Border Protection agents fatally shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident. According to statements by Trump administration officials in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Pretti set out to commit an act of "domestic terrorism" in which he hoped to "massacre law enforcement." The many amateur videos of the incident tell a different story. Immigration enforcement officers push a woman who had been harassing them. Pretti intervenes to assist the woman. He is promptly sprayed with a chemical irritant, then tackled to the ground by at least five officers. They soon discover that Pretti is armed (he had a concealed-carry permit). One officer draws a gun. As another agent attempts to disarm Pretti, confusion ensues. At that point, about ten shots are fired by two agents within roughly five seconds, killing Pretti. At least, that's what the footage appears to show. An independent investigation is necessary to definitively establish what happened. What can be said for sure is that the Trump administration's characterization of the deceased was inaccurate and shamefully self-serving. As a fundamental matter, however, the federal government has the obligation to enforce federal law, and opponents of immigration enforcement agencies should protest peacefully—rather than impede or threaten officers, which Minnesota officials have been all too eager to encourage.   ◼ The Pretti shooting occurred within weeks of the killing of Minneapolis resident Renee Good by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Partly as a result, public opinion seems to have turned against President Donald Trump's deportation tactics. In the latest New York Times/Siena College survey, 61 percent of respondents said the president has gone too far, including almost 20 percent of Republicans. The Trump administration's reaction to Pretti's shooting reflects its sense that it is now in a politically precarious position. In the days that followed, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was sidelined. Trump adviser Stephen Miller conceded that the agents "may not have been following protocol." The social media provocateur at the head of the operation, CBP agent Gregory Bovino, was reassigned. And Trump dispatched border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota. There, Homan promptly took the temperature down. "I have staff from CBP and from ICE working on a drawdown plan," he announced within a week of Pretti's shooting. The Trump administration's wise decision to lower the temperature in Minneapolis came shortly after its decision to do the same regarding Greenland. The White House seems to be discovering that compromising prudence is a useful part of its toolkit.   ◼ So strong has been the pull of reflexive partisanship in the wake of Pretti's shooting that Republicans and Democrats seem briefly to have swapped sides on the desirability and the scope of the Second Amendment. Commenting on the incident, FBI Director Kash Patel proposed that "you cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want," while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent complained that Pretti had brought "a 9mm semiautomatic weapon with two cartridges to what was supposed to be a peaceful protest." On the other side, California Governor Gavin Newsom submitted waspishly that "the Trump administration does not believe in the 2nd Amendment. Good to know." Naturally, none of these statements ought to be taken seriously. Legally, Pretti was within his rights to have his gun on his person, and judging by the footage of his death, it seems unlikely that he had committed any crimes beyond forgetting or discarding his permit (which carries a $25 fine). However, to arm oneself before knowingly entering a highly charged political situation in which one expects to interact antagonistically with law enforcement is foolish, even if permissible under the law. Our politics works best when those involved think before they speak and say only what they believe. Once again, our current crop of carnival barkers has chosen the opposite course. We are all worse off for their efforts.   ◼ Governor Newsom apparently believes that Americans have no memories. In the wake of Pretti's shooting, he submitted that "nothing is sacred in Trump's America—not the First Amendment, not the Second, not even life itself." Moreover, "We, the People," Newsom vowed, "will not allow the Trump Administration to erode our rights." He wants to do that job himself. Newsom is currently trying to repeal the Second Amendment and empower the federal government and the states to pass draconian gun control measures. He recently signed a bill that outlaws concealed carry at the very protests he is now pretending to lionize. He has been no better on the First Amendment. Repeatedly, he has tried to regulate the internet, and repeatedly his handiwork has been struck down. As for "life"? It is no overstatement to describe California as having the most extreme abortion laws in the country. It has long been the case that Newsom would say anything to score points against Trump. But recently, it seems as if he has reached a new level of shamelessness—built atop the presumption that amnesia, not watchfulness, is the citizenry's default state.   ◼ Trump granted federal agencies approval to accelerate the wildfire rebuild in Los Angeles. Fewer than ten houses have been rebuilt in the year since wildfires burned down nearly 40,000 acres in the Pacific Palisades and Eaton Canyon. Only about 2,600 residential permits have been issued for the 13,000 residential properties that were devastated. Under Trump's new executive order, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will allow builders to self-certify to a federal agency that they are in compliance with building standards; residents will also be able to expedite permits and approvals required by the federal government. The order also gives FEMA the power to audit "California's nearly $3 billion in unspent Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds." Should make for enlightening, and perhaps infuriating, reading. A message from Built For America America Must Lead Fusion. Pres. Trump: Invest in Fusion Now Fusion is America's next major advantage. China is spending billions to control the energy system of the future. America has the talent and momentum, but we need national investment to win. President Trump should push Congress to commit $10B now to commercialize fusion and secure U.S. leadership.   Learn more. ◼ The annual Census Bureau estimates of national and statewide population growth from July 2024 to July 2025 paint a picture that ought to alarm blue America. The nationwide growth rate dropped in half, from 1 percent in 2023–24 to 0.5 percent in 2024–25. Only two states, West Virginia and Montana, bucked that trend. That's almost entirely the result of tighter borders: net international migration peaked in 2024, with 2.7 million more people entering the United States than leaving it. That number dropped to 1.3 million in 2025 and is projected to keep plunging. The foreign-born population dropped from 53.3 million to 51.9 million just between January and June of 2025. As usual, the list of fast-growing states is predominantly red, and the list of lagging states is predominantly blue. Per the American Redistricting Project, solidly red states (led by Texas and Florida) stand to gain eight House seats and electoral votes in 2032, with three more gained by North Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona. Blue states stand to lose nine seats, with two more lost by swing states Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. That reflects both a likely blue-to-red shift and a shift among swing states from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt. If demographics isn't destiny, it's a powerful current.   ◼ A study by the Council on Criminal Justice revealed that the murder rate in the United States dropped an astonishing 21 percent in 2025. Not only does this represent the largest single-year reduction on record, but the level may now be the lowest it has been since 1900. And it's not just murder. The study also found that carjackings were down 61 percent, robberies were down 23 percent, and assault and shoplifting were each down 10 percent. This latest reduction is part of a salutary trend that began in the mid-1990s and has been interrupted only by a Covid-era spike. Relative to today, the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s were remarkably violent, with the murder rate swinging between 8 and 10 per 100,000 residents. In 2025, that rate was 4 per 100,000 residents—an extraordinary improvement. Many factors could be responsible for the decline, but it should be our priority to discover which of these variables have been the most influential and then to build on the considerable progress that has been made. To have more than halved the rate of unlawful killings in the space of just 30 years is a fabulous achievement indeed.   ◼ The District of Columbia's delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives can sit on and vote in committees, introduce legislation, and participate in legislative debates, but can't vote on bills being considered by the House. Still, if the district is going to have a delegate, that person should not be succumbing to the effects of old age. The district's delegate is Eleanor Holmes Norton, who turned 88 in June. She has held the position since 1991. In recent years, reporters noticed that Norton was speaking less frequently and often relied on prepared remarks. Her rare, off-the-cuff statements increasingly contradicted written statements issued by her staff. In October, Norton's condition took a sadder and even absurd turn. Thieves who claimed to be HVAC workers charged her credit card $4,362 for duct and fireplace cleaning but did no work. The police report says Norton's "caretaker/power of attorney was not at residence." The field commander's report states that Norton "suffers early stages of dementia." Norton's staff disputed that the police were qualified to make that assessment, but Norton was kept far away from cameras. She then officially filed a termination notice for her reelection with the Federal Election Commission. In a devastatingly illustrative sentence, the New York Times wrote, "It was not clear whether Washington's 88-year-old veteran delegate, who has been in declining health but has insisted she would seek re-election, was aware of the filing." We wish Norton well, but her departure from Congress is long overdue. A message from Built For America ◼ A surge in electrical generation from fossil fuels spared states across the Midwest and Northeast from confronting a brutal winter storm without power. Democratic politicians who had for years led the charge to replace traditional energy sources with renewables were suddenly fretting that solar panels and wind turbines wouldn't hold up well against torrents of snow and ice. As communities braced for potential blackouts, grid operators and utility firms dialed up the dirty fuels they had long been pressured to shun. When wind power faltered in the Southwest and Midwest, the old reliable pair of coal and natural gas filled the gap. Such backups were not available to New England, which, thanks to rigid climate mandates, has phased out coal-fired plants entirely and blocked additional inflows of natural gas. Consequently, the region was forced to burn petroleum to keep the lights on. The scramble for power was aided by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who issued an emergency order to override state limitations on utilities' emissions—freeing power plants to maximize the energy sources that actually work in winter. If fossil fuels are still the most reliable means to produce electricity in a January storm, perhaps governments should quit discouraging their use the rest of the year.   ◼ Absent more eleventh-hour settlements, a 20-year-old woman whose lawyers allege that social media companies got her "addicted" to their platforms will get her day in California state court. The plaintiff, identified publicly as "K. G. M.," claims that her compulsion to use the apps excessively—attributable to such features as algorithms tailored to her viewing habits, infinite scrolling, and autoplay of videos—has caused her such maladies as anxiety, depression, and obsessions about her physical appearance. The trial lawyers hope to duplicate the billions they scored in litigation against tobacco companies. But comparatively, evidence of physical addiction to nicotine was solid. (The legal issue was whether companies lied about it.) The nexus between social media content and viewing compulsion is nowhere near as clear. A federal shield law is supposed to protect the platforms from liability for content posted by third parties. But one can otherwise acknowledge the negative effects of social media on minors while asking whether parental supervision and congressional legislation, rather than lawsuits, aren't the proper remedies. Juries tend to punish big-pocketed defendants, so TikTok and Snapchat have just settled, but Meta (Facebook) and YouTube are in the dock.   ◼ Determining what is going on at the top level of China's regime is always a challenge for outsiders. This week, Xi Jinping tightened his grip on his country's military with the shocking purge of its most senior uniformed official, Zhang Youxia. The Wall Street Journal reported that Zhang, once considered Xi's most trusted military ally, was accused of leaking information about the country's nuclear weapons program to the U.S. (If that's true, that's a sterling accomplishment for America's spies.) Xi has cut a swath through the Chinese military's upper echelon, "with more than 20 senior military officials placed under investigation or ousted since 2023." He is creating a Chinese force that is bigger, more powerful, and absolutely loyal to him. The removal of experienced generals might represent a setback to Chinese military readiness. At the same time, however, the removal of senior personnel who until now moderated Chinese foreign policy—and their replacement with younger, more ideological, and more risk-prone officers—might increase the likelihood of an imminent invasion or blockade of Taiwan. As always, U.S. policymakers and our forces in the Pacific must hope for the best but prepare for the worst.   ◼ More than two years after October 7, 2023, the Israel Defense Forces announced that they have recovered the final Israeli hostage held in Gaza. The remains of Ran Gvili, a 24-year-old Israeli police officer killed during the initial assault and taken into Gaza, were located and returned to Israel following a large-scale military operation. Gvili's recovery concludes the first phase of the cease-fire agreement with Hamas, which had stalled for months over the terrorist group's failure to return all hostages. With the final hostage's remains now recovered, Israel is expected to move into the second phase of the cease-fire, which includes Hamas's disarmament, Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the establishment of an international security force under Trump's 20-point peace plan. Still, U.S. officials continue to warn that Hamas's compliance remains essential and that violations will carry serious consequences. VISIT THE WEEK ARCHIVE ON NATIONALREVIEW.COM. 19 West 44th Street, Ste. 1701, New York, NY, 10036 19 West 44th Street, Ste. 1701 New York, NY, 10036 Your Preferences | Unsubscribe | Privacy View this e-mail in your browser. Your Preferences | Unsubscribe | Privacy View this e-mail in your browser.