The Trump administration made a catastrophic miscalculation: They thought they could control the narrative through sheer force of lying. Now the cracks are showing everywhere. The great irony is that Trump’s 2024 achievement — expanding the Republican coalition — is being destroyed by his signature campaign promise of mass deportation executed with maximum cruelty.
The killing of Renee Nicole Good first exposed this fault line. In the immediate aftermath of her death, the Trump administration adopted an absolutist, no-apologies posture that was chilling even by American policing standards. Typically, when law enforcement kills a civilian, there is at least a ritual performance of solemnity: condolences and promises of an impartial investigation, along with an acknowledgment, however hollow, that taking a human life is a grave matter.
In this case, the administration rushed to declare the shooting justified and beyond reproach. Trump himself baselessly accused Good of trying to run over an ICE agent. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem labeled Good’s actions “domestic terrorism.” There was no remorse, no empathy for the family she left behind, no suggestion that the state should be held to account. The vice president stood at the White House podium and declared that the agent who shot her, Jonathan Ross, was protected by absolute immunity. Two weeks later, Vance claimed he never said it.