Panicked Trump’s Real Reason for ICE U-Turn Exposed

Politics admin July 16, 2026 0 Comments

Panicked Trump’s Real Reason for ICE U-Turn Exposed

Donald Trump abruptly reversed his own administration’s decision to prevent ICE agents from performing traffic stops after watching negative coverage of the plans on television, according to a report.

The Department of Homeland Security had informed federal immigration officers that there would be a temporary halt to the practice of stopping people in their vehicles after ICE agents shot and killed two unarmed people within the space of a few days.

However, the 80-year-old president announced on Truth Social on Wednesday that “we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.”

White House officials told The Atlantic that Trump decided to publicly overrule his own administration’s decision after hearing a “torrent” of public and private criticism of the planned suspension of vehicle stops from MAGA loyalists, including WarRoom host Steve Bannon, former Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, and political commentator Tomi Lahren.

Sources said the “final straw” came after Trump watched negative coverage of the ICE traffic stop decision on cable news Wednesday morning.

Trump ultimately decided that halting traffic stops would “make them all look weak,” a source told The Atlantic.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced late Monday that ICE agents would temporarily halt their traffic stops after Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was shot and killed in his car in Maine earlier that day. The incident came after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed by ICE agents in Houston on July 7.

The decision was made hours after a senior ICE official told Punch Up, the Daily Beast’s sister investigative Substack, that immigration bosses should “shut down ops until we got a handle on s–t.”

Five of the 11 people shot dead by ICE officers during Trump’s second term were in their vehicles. This includes 37-year-old Minneapolis woman Renee Nicole Good, whom multiple administration officials, including former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi “ICE Barbie” Noem, tried to portray as a “domestic terrorist.”

Officials at DHS and ICE told The Atlantic that it would have been highly unlikely that Mullin would have announced a temporary halt to traffic stops without White House approval.

“Not a chance,” a DHS official said. “Someone got into the big boss’s ear. Three-ring circus.”

Those claims were denied by a senior administration official, who said Trump had been left in the dark about the announcement.

Multiple MAGA figures have blamed Mullin for the confusion surrounding the traffic stop policy and have reportedly given ICE Barbie’s replacement the nickname “Kung Fu Plumber.” Mullin is a former MMA fighter who also ran a successful plumbing company with his wife.

On Wednesday, Mullin insisted that he and Trump “are on the same page” on immigration policy.

“We want our ICE officers to have all options available to keep them safe while executing our mission of deporting as many illegal alien criminals from our country as possible,” Mullin posted on X.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.