Admin's Trust, Credibility Tested in MN01/27 06:15

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Bill Cassidy didn't simply criticize the immigration 
crackdown in Minneapolis.

   Following the killing of Alex Jeffrey Pretti by a U.S. Border Patrol 
officer, the Louisiana Republican warned of broader implications for the 
federal government.

   "The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake," Cassidy wrote in a social 
media post, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department 
of Homeland Security. "There must be a full joint federal and state 
investigation. We can trust the American people with the truth."

   Trust is one of a president's most valuable currencies, especially in a time 
of crisis. During his second term, President Donald Trump has persistently 
undermined the trust and credibility of major universities, national law firms 
and media and taken punitive actions against them. His supporters largely 
either endorsed those actions or stayed mum.

   Now the credibility question is aimed at his administration. While the 
criticism is not directly aimed at the president by his supporters, it is a 
sign that trust is eroding over some of his most important policies. 
Administration officials gave one account of the shooting in Minneapolis and 
contemporaneous video provided a decidedly different one.

   In the hours after Pretti's killing, top Trump officials including Homeland 
Security Secretary Kristi Noem were quick to cast Pretti as an instigator who 
"approached" officers with a gun and acted violently. But videos from the scene 
show Pretti being pushed by an officer before a half-dozen agents descend on 
him.

   During the scuffle, he held a phone but is never seen brandishing the 9mm 
semiautomatic handgun police say he was licensed to carry. The administration 
has said investigations are ongoing, though information hasn't yet emerged to 
support some of the provocative initial claims.

   "We trust our national leaders to tell us accurately about the world that we 
don't experience directly but about which they have knowledge," said Kathleen 
Hall Jamieson, the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the 
University of Pennsylvania. "If someone is credible in that role, then their 
description of reality should match your perception of reality if you're a 
dispassionate, fair individual."

   The White House seemed to try to ease the conflict Monday. Trump and 
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spoke and both suggested their conversation was 
productive. Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, who has been at the center of 
the administration's aggressive immigration enforcement surge nationwide, is 
expected to soon leave Minneapolis.

   White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, meanwhile, sought to distance 
Trump from some of the initial claims about Pretti -- including allegations 
that he was a domestic terrorist -- noting they didn't come from the president 
himself.

   Still, lawmakers from both parties -- including many Republicans -- called 
for independent investigations and, perhaps most importantly, trust.

   In calling for a "transparent, independent investigation," Sen. John Curtis, 
R-Utah, wrote to constituents online that "you've trusted me, and maintaining 
that trust matters."

   "I disagree with Secretary Noem's premature DHS response, which came before 
all the facts were known and weakened confidence," he wrote.

   Feeding social media platforms with content

   Trump and his team have spent much of his second term studiously feeding 
content to social media platforms to engage their most loyal supporters in ways 
that independent fact checkers have found to be distorted or baseless. During 
its immigration crackdown, the administration's accounts have posted 
unflattering images of people being taken into custody.

   The extent of efforts to manipulate images became clear last week when the 
White House posted a picture on its X page of civil rights attorney Nekima Levy 
Armstrong crying with her hands behind her back as she was escorted by a 
blurred person wearing a badge. The photo was captioned in all caps: "Arrested 
far-left agitator Nekima Levy Armstrong for orchestrating church riots in 
Minnesota."

   A photo posted by Noem's account showed the same image with Levy Armstrong 
wearing a neutral expression.

   During the 2024 campaign, Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, fueled false 
claims online that Haitians in an Ohio community were abducting and eating 
pets. Pressed on the issue, Vance said he was amplifying the claims to draw 
attention to immigration policies advocated by Democrats.

   "If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays 
attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going 
to do," Vance said at the time, quickly clarifying that he "created the focus 
that allowed the media to talk about this story and the suffering caused by 
policies."

   Trump is hardly the first president to face questions about trust.

   Presidents and credibility

   President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration was undone by his handling of 
the Vietnam War, which ushered in an era of broad skepticism about Washington. 
Just 38% of Americans said last year that they trusted the federal government's 
ability to handle domestic problems at least a fair amount, according to Gallup 
polling. That's down from 70% in 1972.

   Once they leave the White House, presidents are often candid about mistakes 
that eroded their credibility. In his memoir, President George W. Bush wrote 
about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which was a 
predicate for launching a deadly and costly war there.

   "That was a massive blow to our credibility -- my credibility," he wrote. 
"No one was more shocked or angry than I was when we didn't find the weapons. I 
had a sickening feeling every time I thought about it. I still do."

   President Joe Biden's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan marked a turning 
point in his administration. And in her memoir of the 2024 campaign, his vice 
president, Kamala Harris, wrote of rejecting the Biden campaign's talking 
points after his dismal debate performance.

   "I was not about to tell the American people that their eyes had lied," she 
wrote. "I would not jeopardize my own credibility."

   But none of that compares to the credibility challenge facing Trump, 
according to Barbara Perry, the co-director of the Presidential Oral History 
Program at the University of Virginia, who noted the sheer volume of lies and 
exaggerations that have emerged from his administration.

   "Donald Trump is unique," she said. "If you count up all of the times he has 
prevaricated, it would have to outweigh all other presidencies."