Walz says Trump compared Minneapolis surge to Venezuela mission

In a recent phone call with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, President Donald Trump compared the federal immigration operation in Minneapolis to the military mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Walz told MS NOW.

Walz said the president made the reference during a Monday call that was part of the administration’s stunted efforts this week to calm tensions in the face of bipartisan criticism over “Operation Metro Surge,” the infusion of federal agents to Minneapolis that began last month.

“He told me that he doesn’t understand what’s wrong with Minnesota. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you people,’” Walz said Wednesday in an exclusive interview with MS NOW senior national and political correspondent Jacob Soboroff.

“I said, ‘Nothing’s wrong, Mr. President. We’re one of the most effective states and one of the best places to live.’

“And he told me, ‘Well, look, Tim, we did this in New Orleans, we did it in Louisville, there’s no problems.’ And I said, ‘You didn’t kill anybody in Louisville or New Orleans. And the operation here looks very different from that.’

“And then he told me it was successful in Venezuela,” Walz said.

“I’m not sure what gave him the indication that at this point in time, what’s happening to my state, that I’m interested in Venezuela,” Walz continued. “But he told me how well that went, which really was strange to me was, he saw an operation in Venezuela, against a foreign nation, in the same context he saw an operation against a U.S. state and a U.S. city.”

American forces ousted Maduro earlier this month, extraditing him and his wife to the U.S. to face federal charges relate to drug trafficking and weapons. They have pleaded not guilty.

A White House official told MS NOW that Trump brought up Venezuela as a separate topic, and that he was not making a comparison between the country and what’s happening in Minneapolis.

Walz and Trump spoke by phone two days after Homeland Security officers shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti — the second U.S. citizen to be killed by federal agents in Minneapolis this month, after Renee Good. In a Truth Social post, Trump called his Monday conversation with Walz “a very good call,” adding, “we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength.”