THOMPSON: The Trump lies about the killing of Renee Good by a masked ICE agent

Gaslighting is psychological manipulation to make you question reality. There’s not much that Donald Trump and his minions do well…but they are gaslighters par excellence.

Every day the Trump administration foists lies on the American public…shameful distortions to confuse and cause chaos. By design, they try to overwhelm those who question their actions with lie upon lie…insisting all are true. Lying…then doubling, then tripling down.

On Jan. 7 in a Minneapolis residential neighbourhood…they pushed it…going out over their skis. It might be a crack in the alternate universe they have tried to create. That morning, a 37-year old mom with no felonies, no misdemeanours and one traffic violation her entire life…was shot point-blank by an ICE Agent. 

The ICE Agent – masked and unidentified by government officials – fired three rounds, one through the windshield and two through the driver’s side window of the victim’s car. In the old days, the overreactions of law enforcement officers – especially in the use of deadly force – could remain hidden. But today a plethora of Smart Phones gives us an opportunity to record evidence…irrefutable eye-witness accounts…determine truths.

Note that I said this horrible event perpetrated by undertrained and unqualified ICE agents might crack the alternate universe where Trump and Republicans live. But remember that the insane folks are running the asylum. These are not normal times…it is the Golden Age of gaslighting.

The mortally wounded Minneapolis mom – Renee Nicole Macklin Good – died at the scene. ICE Agents prevented a physician who lived nearby from even coming to her aid…waiting instead for EMS officials.  When the physician identified himself one minute after the shooting, an ICE Agent said, “I don’t care,” and ordered him to stay away from Good’s vehicle.

When paramedics arrived 15 minutes later, ICE agents blocked the ambulance’s route…the paramedics had to walk a half block and carried Good’s body by her arms and legs back to the ambulance. 

The incidences of lies and gaslighting surrounding this killing are almost too numerous to tally. Within two hours, Kristi Noem – two-thousand miles away – accused the victim of “domestic terrorism”. 

She lied then, and the next day, and the day after that. Maybe that big cowgirl hat kept her from seeing what really happened. Trump lied. JD Vance lied. Republican Senators and Representatives lied.

Multiple videos show clearly that the mom posed no threat to the officers…nothing she did would make someone “fear for his life.” It is an excuse to cover excessive force…a murder.

Here are facts…truths. Trump sends ICE agents to Democratically governed cities and states exclusively. They wear masks, but no name tags. They might or might not be uniformed…but always wear flak jackets and look ready for battle. 

They usually drive unmarked vehicles. They appear in packs to intimidate…overrunning neighborhoods, apartment buildings and Home Depot parking lots. Despite their lies that they go after criminals – the “worst of the worst” – 90 percent of those detained are guilty of misdemeanours at most…rather than felonies.  

Of course, the trouble didn’t start in Minneapolis on Jan 7. It started last year when Trump spent $100 million to recruit new ICE agents. Nearly half the recruits…even after getting sign-on bonuses of tens of thousands of dollars…showed up for training and couldn’t pass minimal physical or academic requirements. They failed open-book tests.

Perhaps the recruitment effort targeting gun rights supporters, military enthusiasts (not veterans but wannabes), UFC fans and people who listen to Right Wing patriotic podcasts…was the problem. Yeah, they could have simply posted an ad saying, “Thugs Wanted. Gun, Badge and Pardons Provided.” A lot of the same folks would show up.

On that morning in Minneapolis, multiple ICE agents yelled conflicting orders at the young mom. Both “Get out of here” and “Get out of the car” are audible on the video. Trump’s ICE agents wear masks and have no visible identification.

This woman lived in a state where six months ago state House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, and her husband, were shot and killed at their home by someone wearing a mask and pretending to be a law enforcement officer.

Here are more facts…more truths. Even after The New York Times in an interview with Trump in the Oval Office showed him three different video angles in slow-motion and stop-action, Trump continued to lie…continued to gaslight.

“She behaved horribly,” Trump claimed. “And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over.” Yeah, people can say stupid stuff when their lies have to confront truths. 

The FBI – less than 24 hours after the killing – said it would investigate…and not allow state or local officials to do so. The man who lies and gaslights, who concluded hours after the shooting that it was an “an act of domestic terrorism” by the young mom, controls the FBI and the Department of Justice. 

Do you believe anyone in the FBI or Justice Department is going to defy Trump? It won’t happen. But you know, the damage is done…an innocent young woman is dead…a six-year-old child has no parent.

No one in the Trump White House has a sense of history. But as a reminder, it was a senseless act by British troops in Boston in 1770…shooting into a crowd and killing five colonists…that sparked a revolution.

Americans have a history of enduring injustice only so long. Oddly, the Trump Administration’s failure to do the right thing…sooner or later…will lead America to do the right thing. 

Hmmm…revolutionary.