President Donald Trump was riding high early this month after the U.S. military pulled off a stunning raid that captured dictator Nicolas Maduro.
But just three weeks later, he has run into significant resistance on multiple fronts, challenging his economic, foreign relations, and immigration agendas. The second deadly shooting in Minnesota at the hands of federal agents this weekend has unleashed broad outrage that could signal a tipping point.
A retreat could hint at an eroding base after Trump enjoyed widespread support among Republicans for much of 2025 even as his aggressive tariffs shocked businesses and trading partners, including close U.S. allies.
But cracks emerged late in the year as November elections highlighted the affordability crisis and Congress ordered the release of the Epstein files on near-unanimous votes. Heavy redactions and the Justice Department’s failure to disclose all of the records by the deadline added to the tension.
The conversation quickly changed when Maduro was toppled as Trump basked in the U.S. military’s proficiency and his new ability to call the shots in Venezuela, despite grumblings that another foreign intervention strayed from his “America first” motto.
It capped a long-running feud between Powell and Trump, who has repeatedly demanded that rates should be lower.
Still, the resounding success of the Venezuela operation was continuing to prop up his confidence, and Trump threatened Iran while promising to help protesters taking on the regime.
But then the bravado extended to Greenland. After flirting with the idea of taking over the semi-autonomous Danish territory in his first term and last year, the insistence that the island belong to the U.S. became more urgent after Venezuela.
Several European countries, all NATO allies, then deployed troops to Greenland, ostensibly to show Trump that they were willing to secure it from China and Russia, which he warned were major threats.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos this past week, frantic rounds of diplomacy ensued to pull Trump back from the brink of smashing the nearly 80-year-old defense pact. Republicans like Tillis also voiced support for NATO.
Canada and Europe held firm on protecting Greenland’s sovereignty, contrasting with a less combative approach in last year’s tariff battles, which yielded a lopsided U.S.-EU trade pact that heavily favors Trump.
Fury had been building for weeks after Trump surged thousands of federal agents to the state to carry out his immigration crackdown.
Saturday’s shooting was the third in Minnesota this month, and the second deadly one. It also followed days of reports about immigration officers detaining young children, arresting U.S. citizens, and forcibly entering homes without judicial warrants.
Video evidence also clearly contradicted the Trump administration’s claim that Alex Pretti, who was a nurse in a veterans hospital, threatened the Border Patrol before being shot.
“I think the death of Americans, what we’re seeing on TV, it’s causing deep concerns over federal tactics and accountability,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt told CNN on Sunday. “Americans don’t like what they’re seeing right now.”
“It’s not acceptable for American citizens to be killed by federal agents for exercising their God-given and constitutional rights to protest their government,” he wrote. “At best, these federal immigration operations are a complete failure of coordination of acceptable public safety and law enforcement practices, training, and leadership. At worst, it’s a deliberate federal intimidation and incitement of American citizens that’s resulting in the murder of Americans.”
