{"id":18397,"date":"2026-01-30T10:01:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T10:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/minnesota-dems-are-trying-to-walk-a-tightrope-with-trump\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T10:01:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T10:01:45","slug":"minnesota-dems-are-trying-to-walk-a-tightrope-with-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/minnesota-dems-are-trying-to-walk-a-tightrope-with-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota Dems are trying to walk a tightrope with Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Minnesota Democrats are figuring out the delicate art of Trump diplomacy this week.<\/p>\n

First, President Donald Trump had a \u201cvery good call\u201d<\/a> with Gov. Tim Walz, an inflection point after days of heated GOP attacks on the former vice presidential candidate. Then, Trump declared he\u2019d had another \u201cvery good\u201d conversation<\/a>, this time with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Both sides had been looking to deescalate, and Trump seemed to be turning a corner on the two Democratic \u201csanctimonious political fools\u201d<\/a> he had initially blamed after the shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

Then the mayor accidentally broke the detente.<\/p>\n

After meeting with Trump\u2019s border czar Tom Homan, Frey reiterated on social media<\/a> that \u201cMinneapolis does not and will not enforce federal immigration laws,\u201d which a person close to Frey said was simply intended as \u201cclarifying what our stance was.\u201d But Trump quickly shot back<\/a>, declaring Frey\u2019s \u201cstatement is a very serious violation of the Law\u201d and warning the mayor that \u201che is PLAYING WITH FIRE.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s response \u201csurprised\u201d the mayor, according to the person close to him, who was granted anonymity to speak about a sensitive issue. This person said city officials saw Trump\u2019s response \u201cas a threat.\u201d Nonetheless, Frey, in recent appearances on BLN and at the National Mayor\u2019s Conference in Washington on Thursday said \u201cthe Operation Metro Surge needs to end\u201d while eschewing the kind of combative rhetoric that he had used over the weekend. Homan told reporters on Thursday morning that he\u2019d asked for immigration agencies to work on a \u201cdrawdown plan.\u201d After a tense day or two, the fragile peace appeared to be holding.<\/p>\n

The episode illustrates just how delicate the ongoing talks to deescalate the crisis in Minnesota are with a president known for his capricious and erratic negotiating style. As Democrats across the country see a rare political opening on immigration, Minnesota Democrats are first and foremost trying to end the immigration crackdown in their own state. Despite their public confidence, they\u2019re privately on tenterhooks over whether Trump will take the exit ramp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis back and forth [between Trump and Frey] is unhelpful,\u201d said one Minnesota Democratic strategist, granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation. \u201cStrategically, I wouldn\u2019t have phrased it that way. It\u2019s not a huge mistake, but it\u2019s not helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a lesson foreign leaders are deeply familiar with already: Diplomatic breakthroughs with Trump can come fast, and fall apart just as quickly. European officials have regularly had to scramble to respond to the president\u2019s controversial statements on the war in Ukraine or the ownership of Greenland with highly deferential overtures in both public and private. They\u2019ve had mixed success.<\/p>\n

Throughout Trump\u2019s second term, Democrats have struggled to find their footing in negotiations with the president. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer drew fury from his own party for voting for a GOP-drafted continuing resolution in March. In October, Democrats forced what would become the longest government shutdown in US history over health care funding, but they emerged from it without any tangible deliverables. But in Minnesota, Democrats appear to hold the political upper hand, as Trump\u2019s polling numbers, particularly his handling of immigration, plummeted in recent weeks \u2014 and he signals eagerness to cut a face-saving deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone needs to give something here to move on from this,\u201d one Minnesota union chief said \u2014 adding that it can be difficult to do. A Democratic operative in the state expressed hope that Frey\u2019s post was merely \u201ca bump on the exit ramp.\u201d<\/p>\n

But not all Minnesota Democrats agree that playing ball is the way forward. \u201cBeing nice isn\u2019t somehow going to stop Donald Trump when anything can set him off,\u201d said Ron Harris, a Democratic National Committee member from Minnesota. Frey\u2019s post, he said, simply \u201cemphasized what the law is.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Frey said in a statement that \u201cthe mayor has been communicating both publicly and privately, including to the president and Tom Homan, that Minneapolis would be happy to partner on criminal investigations, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re focusing our limited law enforcement resources on.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear when the Trump administration will end its operation in Minnesota, though the president appears motivated to do so. The Trump administration has already pulled back in other states. Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins said that ICE has \u201cended its enhanced activities<\/a>\u201d in Maine after politicians on both sides of the aisle urged the agency to stop.<\/p>\n

For Democrats studying Trump diplomacy, Walz and Frey may offer a template in some of their tonal differences. Interviews with nearly a dozen Minnesota Democrats said the pair were largely aligned in substance, and the rhetorical daylight, highlighted by the social media scuffle with Trump, reflects their differing constituencies and styles \u2014 and political realities.<\/p>\n

Last November, Frey held off a stiff challenge from the left from state Sen. Omar Fateh, a Democratic Socialist, to win reelection. But the progressive wing of the party retook the majority on city council, too<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s facing a lot of internal pressure\u201d from the city council to \u201ccontinue calling out the craziness,\u201d said a Democratic strategist who, like others, was granted anonymity to candidly discuss a sensitive issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrey\u2019s constituency is different\u201d than Walz, the strategist said, \u201cand in general, I think he\u2019s been more combative \u2026 They\u2019re also just different people with different negotiating styles.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old mayor is also seen as a potential statewide candidate, layering in its own political calculations. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar\u2019s gubernatorial run<\/a> \u2014 and departure from the Senate \u2014 could likely open up another statewide office after 2026.<\/p>\n

Walz, for his part, is unshackled from an immediate political future. The two-term governor dropped his reelection bid earlier this month<\/a>, after a welfare fraud scandal in the state threatened to engulf his campaign. Walz acknowledged the scandal affected his decision and Republicans were eager to tie him to it, but he has not been accused of any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

Abou Amara, a Minneapolis civil rights attorney, said Frey\u2019s aggressive rhetoric toward the beginning of the federal government\u2019s intervention was “necessary,” but now \u201ceveryone understands there has to be a ratcheting down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mayor is obviously closer to the people, he understands the visceral pain and the trauma that the people are experiencing,\u201d Amara said. \u201cThe governor is operating on a level of having a bit more authority here on how the state interacts with the federal government. \u2026 Governor Walz is in a position to deliver on things with the federal government in a way that the mayor is not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minnesota Democrats are figuring out the delicate art of Trump diplomacy this week. First, President Donald Trump had a \u201cvery good call\u201d with Gov. Tim Walz, an inflection point after days of heated GOP attacks on the former vice presidential candidate. Then, Trump declared he\u2019d had another \u201cvery good\u201d conversation, this time with Minneapolis Mayor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}