The firings will continue until the morale improves

The David Pakman Show - January 27, 2026

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The Wall Street Journal editorial board broke sharply with Trump, calling his immigration crackdown a moral and political failure after federal agents killed 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. The board cited video showing Pretti helping a pepper sprayed woman before being tackled, disarmed, and shot, and said the official account is not believable. Coming from a conservative business paper tied to Fox News’ parent company, this matters.

That pressure quickly turned into a scapegoating exercise. Trump pushed out Greg Bovino, branded as a demotion but clearly a firing. Bovino was the public face of the crackdown, staging events and turning enforcement into a MAGA spectacle in blue cities. Once video evidence destroyed claims that Pretti was a terrorist or imminent threat, Bevino kept repeating them. Trump responded the way he always does, dumping the loyalist and pretending to be the adult cleaning up a mess he created.

The killing is also fracturing Trump’s base. Longtime allies like Sean Spicer and even the NRA are rejecting the idea that legally carrying a gun makes someone a valid target for lethal force. That position directly contradicts decades of right-wing gun rhetoric. At the same time, the White House has shifted from full defense to evasive language, with Karoline Leavitt refusing to say the shooting was justified.

Inside the administration, this looks like panic. Trump rushed to portray a friendly call with Governor Tim Walz and claim everyone is aligned, even though nothing about the policy has changed. At the podium, the White House blames Democrats while presenting Trump as the steady fixer.

Karoline Leavitt’s latest briefing made the scramble obvious. Pressed on the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, she blamed sanctuary cities while avoiding any blame for the federal agents who pulled the trigger. Asked whether Stephen Miller would apologize for falsely labeling Pretti an assassin or domestic terrorist, she hid behind “under investigation” and offered no retraction.

FBI Director Kash Patel has become another liability. In interviews several years apart, he contradicted himself on whether legally carrying a gun at a protest is protected or suspicious. First he stressed respect for the First and Second Amendments, then suggested armed presence itself is dangerous.

Megyn Kelly’s reaction was the most revealing. Her message boiled down to stay home or risk getting shot. By dismissing Pretti because he was outside and legally armed, she turned constitutional rights into conditional privileges. That is not conservatism or libertarianism. It is authoritarianism, exposed in real time when state violence hits the wrong person.

Finally, Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist and world leader in health policy and bioethics, joins us to discuss his new book "Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life."

On today’s bonus show:

NRA calls for an investigation into the killing of Alex Pretti, House Democrats push impeachment of Kristi Noem, calls grow for a US World Cup boycott, and much more...

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