A Line Of Demarcation

When the government kills, it has an obligation to demonstrate that it has acted in the public interest.  Instead, the Trump administration is once again engaged in a perversion of justice.

The administration is urging Americans to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears.  Ms. Noem and Mr. Bovino are lying in defiance of obvious truths.  They are lying in the manner of authoritarian regimes that require people to accept lies as a demonstration of power.

Truth is a line of demarcation between a democratic government and an authoritarian regime.  Mr. Pretti and Ms. Good are dead.  The American people deserve to know what happened.

It is premature to reach conclusions about what exactly happened on that Minneapolis street.  The Trump administration should not have done so, and we will not do so.  What is clear, however, is that the federal government needs to re-establish public faith in the agencies and officers who are carrying out Mr. Trump's crackdown on immigration.

-- Editorial board of the New York Times, "The Trump Administration Is Lying to Our Faces.  Congress Must Act." (25 January 2026)