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THIS COULD BE THE MOMENT MAGA COLLAPSES  
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Aaron Regunberg
January 27, 2026
The New Republic
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_ Alex Pretti’s murder is giving even Trump supporters pause.
Democrats should refuse to give ICE one more cent, shut down the
government, and fly to Minneapolis to help communities there stand up
to state violence. _

A march through the streets of downtown Minneapolis, on January 25,
one day after Customs and Border Control’s killing of Alex Pretti, a
37-year-old ICU nurse, and less than three weeks after ICE shot and
killed Renee Good, also 37, in her car., ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty
Images

 

Donald Trump’s assault on Minneapolis will be a landmark event in
American politics. It could even prove to be MAGA’s Waterloo.
Everywhere right now, there’s evidence that Americans who aren’t
Democrats or even Democratic-leaning are choosing to believe their own
eyes over the administration’s explicitly dishonest explanation for
Alex Pretti’s execution. Even the regime’s strongest
defenders—from the NRA
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to Fox News
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to be uneasy or downright unwilling to play along with Trump’s lies
about the murder his goons committed in broad daylight on Saturday.

 
“I Am One Of The People That Doesn’t Want ILLEGAL ALIENS Here
Illegally But This Shit Is Out Of Control,” posted
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a guy I and a few friends follow for anecdata on how swing voters in
my home state are feeling. “People Have NO RIGHTS In This Country
With Actions Like These,” he wrote. “FUCK Untrained Ice Officers
And FUCK YOUR PRESIDENCY If THIS Is How You RULE,” he added,
comparing Trump to Hitler and ICE to the gestapo. A quick look around
r/Conservative
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Reddit community for conservatives—shows that this reaction is far
from isolated. In each of these cases, it seems people who are in many
ways as far removed from a resistance demonstrator as it’s possible
to be are coming to the same conclusion as your average No Kings
participant: that this regime is dragging the U.S. into
authoritarianism.

Trump is politically vulnerable right now. But what happens next
depends in part on the opposition. If Democrats and the left want to
turn this moment into a real inflection point—permanently cratering
Trump’s popularity and MAGA’s power—they need to go all in on
this fight. The people of Minneapolis and others all across our
country have already been throwing down in incredibly inspiring ways.
It’s time for our opposition party to join them.

What does that mean for Democrats? The bare minimum requires refusing
to hand billions of dollars more to the government agency openly
executing people in the streets. This is nonnegotiable. And
thankfully, in the wake of Alex Pretti’s murder, Senate Democrats
seem to be coalescing around that position. Senate Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer has announced
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that Democrats will not vote for the DHS funding bill without changes
to “restrain, reform, and restrict ICE.” And with the government
funding deadline approaching on January 30, if Schumer can effectively
whip and unify his caucus—as Hakeem Jeffries couldn’t or
wouldn’t
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last week—that will mean a government shutdown.

Then what? One path forward would be for Democrats to follow the same
playbook they used for the last shutdown—do some run-of-the-mill
messaging, wait a couple weeks until enough Senate Democrats decide to
give in, and then pass the offensive legislation unchanged. But what
if we closed our eyes and imagined, for a moment, how a maximally
effective opposition party might respond to these events? When I try
this exercise, here’s what I see.

When the government shuts down, congressional Democrats announce that
they are heading to Minneapolis: “Trump’s regime has launched an
all-out attack on an American city—an attack that will be repeated
against more of our communities if it’s not stopped there,” they
say in a press release or conference. “Democrats are committed to
protecting Americans from these assaults on our rights and our
persons, so we are getting on a plane and going where those assaults
are strongest.” Wherever possible, they ask local reporters from
their states or districts to join them on their trip, to communicate
about the reality on the ground. (Some Democratic content creation
teams might be a good idea too.) When they arrive, Democratic leaders
join in the frontline organizing happening in Minneapolis. They
don’t just stay for a quick photo op and then bail. They do
ridealongs with “commuters
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activists following Border Patrol vehicles around the city. They join
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recording clashes between Minneapolis residents and the militia forces
occupying their city. They put on gas masks when ICE fires tear gas at
them; they stand with parents protecting their schools
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This work would do three things. First, it would drive endless,
round-the-clock coverage—not just in national media but in hundreds
of regional outlets covering local Democratic leaders—of Trump’s
violent goons doing all the horrific, un-American,
Constitution-trashing abuses that most voters can’t stomach.

Second, it would likely lead to some sort of win—even if it’s just
an end to Trump’s siege of Minneapolis—as Trump’s approval
ratings sink lower and lower and the regime recognizes the political
damage it is doing to itself. Seeing that Trump can really be beaten
would further strengthen and embolden the resistance movement, as
people sense a momentum shift.

And third, it would give Democrats an opportunity to show the American
people that they do, in fact, have some backbone after all. This is
one of the Democratic Party’s key liabilities right now—it lacks
credibility
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A recent poll found that fewer than one in five
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Americans believe the Democratic Party is the party that can “get
things done.” People don’t believe Democrats will do what they say
they’ll do; they don’t trust them to follow through, to stand up
to power, to commit to fights. It’s hard to think of a better
solution to this problem than a days- or weeks-long explosion of
content featuring Democratic leaders acting with what—to most
non-MAGA voters—will be seen as undeniable courage, in opposition to
undeniable tyranny.

Normal people appreciate seeing leaders actually walk the walk. When
you watch someone put their body on the line to oppose something
awful—even if it’s someone you might have disliked before—you
can’t help but respect their chutzpah and commitment.

That respect is exactly what the Democratic Party lacks. It’s what
it needs to turn a vulnerable moment for this unpopular administration
into a complete rout. The whole country is watching—why not
demonstrate to America that, as Republicans skulk about in fear of
displeasing their dear leader, Democrats have the courage to stand for
their convictions?

Of course, you could say this vision is a naïve daydream. Based on
recent history, the idea that Democrats would take this kind of
leadership right now is hard to imagine. And yet, there’s nothing
technically unrealistic, or even that challenging, about this
strategy. It just takes some initiative and some bravery. That
shouldn’t be too much to ask, or demand, from our only opposition
party. So let’s demand it.

The Trump administration is waging a campaign of terror against its
own population. They are attacking
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children, abusing elders
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and treating an entire city of Americans like enemy combatants.
They’re trampling on the First, Second, and Fourth Amendments to the
Constitution (at the very least). And now they’re literally
murdering civilians in the street. It’s all too horrifying to fully
comprehend. But there is one source of light in the darkness. The
regime has miscalculated. They seem to have assumed that the American
people are as deprived of humanity as they are. But they’re not.
Americans are repulsed by what’s happening in Minneapolis, and they
are putting the blame where it belongs. This could be Donald Trump’s
Waterloo. Let’s press the attack.

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Aaron Regunberg is a contributing editor at _The New Republic_, a
climate lawyer, and a progressive organizer.

 
 

 

* Democrats; Minneapolis; ICE; Trump;
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