Trump’s Move Out of Machiavelli

In his classic of realpolitik, mediaeval-style The Prince, Machiavelli has some sage advice for leaders who need some dirty work done. First, send in your toughest thug to do the actual work. Once the dirty deeds are done, though, make a big show of disapproval and removing the thug, and replace him with a ‘nice guy’ who is also one of your cronies.

That way, the dirty work gets done, but the leader can pose as the ‘saviour’.

As it happens, US President Donald Trump has cited The Prince as one of his favourite books, which puts him in the company of Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, as it happens.

And he’s obviously learned a thing or two from it.

Border czar Tom Homan announced that staff from CBP and ICE are “working on a drawdown plan” after successful meetings with top Minnesota officials and law enforcement, discussing “agreements” he said would allow the agencies to reduce the number of personnel deployed in the state.

Homan spoke out during a press conference on Thursday morning in Minneapolis, just days after he had assumed leadership of the Trump administration’s immigration operation in Minnesota. President Donald Trump demoted Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino and appointed Homan after the fatal shooting of VA nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday.

Bovino was the tough guy sent in to do the dirty work. Dirty work all but done, Bovino’s head rolls and Homan steps in as the ‘nice guy’.

Not that the administration is exactly backing down.

He continued, arguing that “hateful rhetoric and attacks” on ICE agents had required the agency to send in more personnel: “We have to [then] send in a security team behind the arrest team. What could have been done by one person in the safety of the jail now, we got 15–16 people out there doing.”

“I know that causes stress in the community,” he acknowledged, adding new agreements “mean less agents on the street.”

In other words, a state government that had gone rogue is being pulled back into line, and will do what it should have done all along: assist federal agents in their entirely lawful duties. Minnesota Governor and former Democrat VP candidate Tim Walz, has also announced his retirement from public office – likely trying to head off the indictments.

Already, the Trump administration is swooping on some of the most public faces of the insurgency. Former TV host Don Lemon and his (alleged!) co-conspirators have been arrested for their part in the violent storming of a church just weeks ago.

If, as Homan’s appointment suggests, the administration is making a strategic withdrawal, heading weeks more damaging attacks from a legacy media deep in cahoots with the insurgents, then, if they’re smart, they’re drawing up even more indictments – especially the leaked Signal chats that exposed not only how organised the insurgency is, but the collusion of public officials, and where at least some of the funding is coming from.

If it’s not his potential involvement in the insurgency that Walz has to worry about, there’s the fraud, too.

Minnesota’s Gov Tim Walz has announced he is dropping his re-election bid and will not seek a third term this coming November amid widespread fraud allegations within the state.

Walz, who ran as the Democratic Party’s vice presidential nominee in the 2024 election, has encountered lower approval ratings over the past month as criticism continues to mount amid investigations into state welfare agencies and government-affiliated programs that were widely targeted by fraud.

Remember what the Democrats spent four years finger-wagging us: No one is above the law.