Back It Off Before It Really Gets Out Of Hand
That’s all I’m saying - we’re losing the propaganda war.
Let me begin by thanking everyone once again for their input on how to improve this Substack and retain subscribers. It apparently worked, because not only am I posting more frequently now, my subscribership exploded! Literally! I made up all my lost readers in little over a day! Let this serve as a reminder that the people are more right than you think and that giving the people what they want is the first rule of media.
In light of the length of my first essay on the topic, this one will be something of a summary of my thoughts on the Renee Good shooting, the increasing tension in Minnesota, and the issue of immigration in America, as well as covering new developments.
Let’s dive in.
Winning Hearts And Minds Matters
My X account, like my Substack, suffers from low engagement. That said, the following X post, for some strange reason, erupted with engagement:
Yikes. If only all my tweets achieved that level of engagement!
Despite the “ratio,” meaning that I received far more criticism than support, I still stand by what I said. Here’s what my ally Rod Dreher said in response:
That’s all I’m saying - we’re losing the propaganda war. The American Right has grown so cynical that they think this doesn’t matter. The Left thinks we’re authoritarians, so let’s just be authoritarian, goes the thinking. However, dictatorships are notorious for their use of propaganda, because even tyrants understand you need people to think you’re doing the right thing. If winning the propaganda wars matters in a dictatorship, why wouldn’t it matter in a democracy?
The always sensible Scott Greer says:
There are only two options here for Trump: either he continues his strong immigration enforcement policies in the way he is doing them, or he drops the goal of mass deportations altogether. There is no secret third way that will somehow please liberals and also simultaneously remove millions of illegals.
If you read his whole piece, you gain a better understanding of what he’s getting at. He’s not wrong - the Left is fully committed to mass illegal immigration and have no interest in seeing even violent criminals deported. Trying to achieve any sort of consensus with them is a non-starter However, the idea that Trump cannot do better is wrong. There’s always room for improvement.
For one, agents are basically being rushed through training to get them out onto the streets as quickly as possible. It appears applicants and recruits aren’t being properly vetted, and many of the agents out in the field probably shouldn’t be. Millions of Americans already think cops in general don’t get enough training before being given immense authority and responsibilities. Forget about the Left for a moment - if you want Americans in general to have trust in ICE, trust that mass deportations are being done the right way, you cannot just throw caution to the wind and cynically decide to go full-bore because, hey, we’re going to piss off everyone, anyway! That’s not how you do politics, Trump is no Caesar, and even Caesar had the wisdom to understand you don’t just piss people off and expect to remain legitimate.
Remember that American trust in police isn’t all that high to begin with. Not only that, even in better days, ICE was considered something of a disreputable federal agency, hardly of a similar pedigree as the FBI. Unless one thinks public rancor is a good thing, a sign that your policies are actually working, pursuing policies which undermine trust in institutions is a terrible way to govern. Imagine the country is at war, it doesn’t go well, public trust in the military falls, but you keep waging war, and end up losing, anyway. Who’s going to want to fight and die for the country in the future? What would happen to the military as an institution? The political leadership?
The propaganda and disinformation machines have been spinning at max velocity. It’s having an effect. We’ve all heard the saying: Stand for nothing, fall for anything. Because personal feelings are the only thing most Americans would ever stand for, that makes them even more susceptible to propaganda. Leaders need to take this into account. Like it or not, public perception needs to be managed. It’s not so much about the next election - the Left will sweep back to power in the 2026 mid-terms and appears well-positioned to reclaim the White House in 2028 - but it’s about keeping the public convinced that immigration is something which needs to be strictly policed.
The immigration situation in the U.S. wasn’t a crisis, but was certainly headed in that direction. Polling has consistently shown Americans are willing to agree that it’s a problem, but fewer think it’s one demanding heavy-handed measures. Worse, Americans have become addicted to disorder and illegal immigration. You cannot just cut addicts off from drugs and expect them to get well. Again, the Right claims it cares not one iota about how the public thinks, then wonders why their policies, Trump, and the Republican Party rate poorly so consistently.
For two, like it or not, it’s not a good idea to implement a policy that causes such backlash. I don’t like the protesters - I hate them, in fact - but you can’t just feed the fire, either. Refusing to uphold the rule of law because it might piss off the wrong people is also a non-starter. But pragmatism is sometimes needed. Right now, immigration enforcement is deeply unpopular among the majority of Americans. Some polls show differently, but I think it can also be true that people’s opinions can change rapidly depending on how well they think certain policies are working.The best way to get protesters off the streets is to not give them a reason to come out in the first place.
Greer again:
Though Greer is right about the rightward shift among young people to be illusory, he undermines his own point by saying most Americans won’t care about deportations as long as the economy is good. The economy isn’t good. So this is a moot point by him and only ensures that deportations will remain a problematic issue and not only will it hurt the Right electorally, it’ll make dealing with immigration next to impossible until it becomes an actual full-blown crisis, which would be truly insurmountable, delivering the nightmare scenario the Right has been sounding the alarm about.
In America, political leaders can either swim against the tide or along with it. There are times when swimming against it is necessary. But this proves successful only when there exists sufficient political capital for doing so. Trump has not only lacked political capital his entire presidency, he also lacks the popularity to get away with unpopular policies.
What’s he to do at this point? I can only tell you what he should’ve done from the start:
Announce all illegal immigrants have one year to leave the country, for all other non-citizens to correct visa problems or any other issues with their legal status in the country;
Give businesses one year to verify employees’ legal status and dismiss anyone who isn’t a legal resident;
Close the border;
Identify legal pitfalls and find ways to resolve or mitigate them ahead of time;
During that one year, hire and train thousands of ICE officers by properly vetting them for background and professional qualifications, put them through rigorous training optimized to widely accepted standards throughout policing, and ensure they are capable of doing the job safely and without causing unnecessary problems;
Negotiate cooperation with state and local governments, establish working relationships with local law enforcement to at least ensure obstruction will not occur, even when operating in sanctuary cities.
After a year, go for broke. Chase them all down, deport them all, vigorously fine businesses still employing illegals (we always need more tax revenue, right?). Everyone would’ve been duly warned, given plenty of time to self-deport. ICE operations might still be unpopular, but the administration would’ve been on much stronger footing both in a legal and public relations sense. Anyone who says otherwise, anyone who says things wouldn’t have gone better as a result of following a better strategy is being dishonest.
One of my biggest, most consistent complaints about Trump is that he isn’t a strategic thinker. Effective politicians play the long game, with clear, realistic end goals in mind. While Trump’s “hit the ground running” approach in 2025 was necessary in many ways and quite refreshing, there are times you need to take a more deliberate approach. The goal is to deport as many people as possible over four years, not deport everyone in a single year, an entirely unattainable goal. I also think the administration was preoccupied with making a public spectacle of their immigration policies, which turned out to be a disastrous miscalculation. They either overestimated public support for their policies or did so with the intention of riling up their opponents. The former is incompetent, the latter unjustifiable.
That all said, I want to be fair - it hasn’t all been bad. Trump’s one and only accomplishment in his first year was closing the border. Not even the Left can spin that against the president, that’s how much of a success it was. Everyone, including Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, said closing the border was next to impossible; I always knew they were lying. 2025 was also the first year in almost a century where fewer people entered the country than left. That’s a big step in the right direction. Despite grabbing all the attention, most deportations are self-initiated, meaning that up to a certain point, the administration’s hard-line tack is working in terms of convincing illegal migrants they need to leave. This means those who choose not to leave and risk a confrontation with ICE have no excuses; whether they have serious criminal records or not, they are proving they don’t belong here.
So much of the success of such policies depend on cooperation; cooperation from state and local authorities, but from the public also. The lack of cooperation is a big reason why immigration enforcement operations have proven so problematic, but this only underscores the importance of planning, preparation, and laying the groundwork ahead of time. There are very few things in life where the relationship between long-term success and planning/preparation is an inversely correlated one. Trump would’ve lost nothing by waiting a year.
Immigration is a controversial, hot-button issue. Always has been, always will be. When the cultural tides are working against you, the smart move is to keep something like immigration off the headlines as much as possible, not make the biggest amount of noise possible. Again, the other side may still try to make it a big deal, but if one believes, as Scott Greer does, that people won’t care as long as the economy is doing well, then it stands to reason that not drawing attention to it will have similar results.
But not only is that not Trump’s style, when the whole point is to make as much noise as possible, to “own the libs,” and to create as many Internet memes as possible, you’re going to shoot yourself in the foot. A perfect encapsulation of the Trump presidency, isn’t it?
Politics aside, my point is this: preventing tragedy is important. The shooting of Renee Good wasn’t criminal, but it was unfortunate and, in the grand scheme of things, totally unnecessary. Even Trump seems to understand that. Whatever your views on Good’s death or immigration, we should all be able to agree that her death absolutely doesn’t help the cause of restoring order to America’s out-of-control immigration situation.
Confronting ICE Remains Stupid As Ever
Not only has my initial assessment of the Renee Good shooting not changed, I feel more confident in my assessment today than I did initially. I’m not trying to brag here, but I can’t help but take some pride in the fact that I don’t view anything through an ideological lens. Nobody should. Unfortunately, I’m finding that folks like me may be a minority. America is truly a hyper-ideologized place.
Unlike most Americans, I still defer to the experts. Here’s YouTuber “Nate The Lawyer,” a defense attorney, as his name implies, as well as former law enforcement officer, giving his assessment of the incident. I think Nate has the professional background and credibility necessary to be taken seriously on the topic.
The fixation over whether ICE agent Jonathan Ross observed use-of-force policy to a letter is a distraction in the sense that nobody ever relinquishes their right to self-defense. This is, in many ways, what the case comes down to - did Ross have reason to be concerned for his safety? Americans are grappling with this question in part because we all know we’re allowed to defend ourselves from death or great bodily harm, but we don’t understand how and when we’re allowed to do so.
Though I wouldn’t consider this a “good” shoot, this is certainly a defensible one. Was it necessary to shoot and kill Renee Good? No, and I personally think justice would’ve been better served with Good being forced to run the gauntlet known as America’s legal system than to serve as a martyr for one of the dumbest, yet most fiercely defended causes imaginable. At the same time, Agent Ross wasn’t thinking about any of that when he pulled the trigger, nor was he supposed to be. He was thinking about whether or not Good posed a threat to himself and his fellow agents. The decision to shoot may have been wrong, but not his mental focus.
The YouTube channel “Armed Attorneys” draws similar conclusions:
It’s all so tiresome, frankly, for millions of Americans to immediately become experts - in this case, police use-of-force experts - every time a big story breaks out. I’m not someone who thinks people should never opine on a topic outside their proverbial lane, but I also believe people shouldn’t speak with such assuredness unless they have the professional qualifications to do so. The idea is to ask more questions, give less answers. Remember: even the professionals aren’t correct 100 percent of the time.
Skepticism must be the default attitude, and not just skepticism towards the official government line. People should be skeptical of the popular narrative as well. People should also be able to approach even hot-button issues dispassionately. If nothing else, just remember: it’s not your outrage. I’ve said this many times before, but it’s not your duty to be upset on behalf of others. This is a peculiarity of American culture that I can’t abide, this belief that we have a moral responsibility to be outraged for others. Besides, I’ve found that it’s next to impossible to get people to care about anything, no matter the facts of the case.
Fixating on the shooting distracts from the actual problem, which is that illegal immigration is a problem which apparently Americans don’t want to fix. They don’t believe it to be a crisis and to try and solve it involves doing things that make Americans feel bad about themselves. I find that strange given no people of the world have a lower opinion of themselves to begin with than Americans, but people never make sense 100 percent of the time. Unfortunately, Americans are too deep into delusional territory that there’s no way for them to back out without suffering some form of existential breakdown.
The country is heading off the cliff over illegal immigration because, well, what else is left for America to accomplish?
Immigration Enforcement Is Still Worthwhile
Though I strongly believe Trump needs to back off on immigration enforcement operations and let things cool off, lest there be more tragedies, I still believe enforcing immigration law, even against public sentiment, is worthwhile over the long term. Objectively, immigration is a problem, and doing nothing about it is to be derelict. The problem is that it’s become the red line issue for both sides, meaning there’s no way this is going to end well.
Despite all the controversies, most detainees are either illegals or those with questionable legal status. Consider an ICE detainee who recently died while in custody:
Reminder: the Left has already shifted the goalposts once already, saying that they believe violent criminals should be deported. Yet when protesters hit the streets to oppose ICE, this is who they’re protecting. Their sympathy for someone who died in ICE custody belies the fact not a single one of them would care if this was a White American male who’s MAGA and voted for Trump who died instead. Some people just deserve it, right?
There’s also the fallacy in the Left essentially saying illegal immigrants should be allowed to kill someone before the law is allowed to be enforced against them. I don’t understand how this thinking became so common, so orthodox, among Americans. The only explanation is that Americans are, as I’ve said repeatedly, addicted to criminality and disorder, that they consider it the norm.
Then there was the five-year-old who was “kidnapped” by ICE and used as “bait” to capture his father. In reality, the story is a whole lot simpler: the father abandoned his child in an attempt to evade arrest. Again, this is who the Left is defending, and their propaganda machines are running at full-bore in an attempt to shape public opinion decisively against the administration and immigration enforcement.
If detractors still want to argue that too many “innocent” people are getting caught up, fine. But they must first explain why the situation was allowed to get so out of control in the first place. Have you ever tried cleaning up a messy garage or even a messy bedroom? How else do you clean it up besides doing wholesale reorganization or throwing away things you don’t need? If you kept things clean and organized from the beginning, you wouldn’t need to turn it inside out. This is the problem with our immigration situation. Things are just bad enough to the point taking it easy on the clean-up isn’t going to make a difference.
Of course, none of this would be an issue if Americans haven’t become addicted to illegal immigration in the first place. What’s happening is a mass withdrawal episode - as Americans are forced to get off the stuff that got them high, they’re kicking and screaming like petulant children as if their pets are being taken away. That and people are generally conservative in that they prefer maintaining the status quo over radical change. But don’t tell that to a liberal!
Illegal Immigration Feeds Self-Righteousness
In closing, it’s worth remembering that stopping illegal immigration was, within the last generation, the standard position across the American political spectrum. Both the Left and Right have recently brought up the fact Barack Obama, as both candidate and president, was anti-illegal immigration. The Left, of course, pretends like they never changed, but we know this to be true: by the end of Obama’s presidency, Democrats couldn’t care less about immigration. When Trump came out strongly against it, didn’t mince words, thus emerging as a political forces to be reckoned with, the Left decided the complete opposite stance was the position to take.
I used to think that immigration was taken off the table as an issue, given how radioactive it was, how easily it could trigger backlash. I used to think the Left, even if they returned to power, would leave immigration alone, at least leave the border closed, because, well, what’s the downside of doing so? But after the shooting of Renee Good, I have to wonder if the Left now views immigration, even illegal immigration, as a winning issue. They might not be wrong.
Think about it - Americans, probably a legacy of their religiosity, are moralistic to a fault. Feeling like they’re the good guys, on the right side of history, that’s important to Americans. Immigration has been mythologized into an indelible part of our national lore, many people feel it impossible to take anything other than a sympathetic stance towards it, and nobody wants to feel like a big bad meanie for telling anyone to leave. Immigration is just the latest issue which provides an opportunity for millions of Americans to feel self-righteous. Why wouldn’t the Left take advantage of it?
As I close out this entry, another shooting has occurred in Minnesota and another protester is now dead. I’ll need to talk about this some other time, but boy, things are spiraling in a hurry.
Time to discuss. What are your thoughts on the Trump administration’s approach to illegal immigration? Shall they remain on course? Or is it time to slow things down, let tensions ease? Has your opinion on the Renee Good shooting changed or stayed the same? What do you think future developments will entail?
Share your thoughts in the comments.
Max Remington writes about armed conflict and prepping. Follow him on Twitter at @AgentMax90.
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Also backing down will send a signal to the radicals that their tactics work. Taking a break will not deter them. Giving in to petulant children is not the answer.
Could not bring myself to finish this awful article. The propaganda war cannot be won with the media that we have. The entire strategy is to draw fire and then cry in front of cameras. Normies are cattle and there is nothing you can do to change it. The only way to win is to damn the propaganda war and focus on the actual destruction of left power, like deporting their voters, prosecuting them, shutting down their sources of funding, stopping the drug trafficking, stopping the steal of elections. The attack on fraud is huge. Destruction of the CRS is huge. These are the kinds of things you have to do to win. The left is demoralized and everyone thinks the whistle thing is for libtards. The old hags whining about this will be dead in 10 years. Trump needs soldiers who are personally loyal to him and is using these conflicts as a loyalty test. We just simply have to crush these people. If Walz can walk free after all of this we basically don't have a country.