Steve Deace on Homan in Minnesota: Crush, don’t quell, protests — or every red state will pay the price

Amid the escalating anti-ICE protests raging through the Twin Cities, President Trump announced on Monday that he was immediately dispatching border czar Tom Homan to oversee and manage ICE operations on the ground in Minnesota.

The announcement came shortly before another Truth Social post in which Trump revealed that he had spoken with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) about working toward a solution to quell the escalating protests, noting that Homan would be a key figure in the process.

But BlazeTV host Steve Deace can’t imagine a situation where Tom Homan — “the crown prince of the entire [Trump] regime,” he calls him — de-escalates a raging left-wing movement.

It won’t be enough, Deace argues, for Homan to deliver messaging that counters that of Walz and Frey. “That’s a good start, but that’s not going to quell the level of [violence we have seen],” he says.

Unlike most people on the right, who “won’t do bold stuff because they don’t want to get in the way of their comfort,” left-wing activists, like Renee Good, says Deace, are willing to risk their lives for a cause. They don’t seem to be motivated by protecting their comforts in the same way conservatives are.

That said, he “[doesn’t] believe there’s a single protester right now who’s going to tune in to Tom Homan’s … superior messaging to Tim Walz and Jacob Frey.”

It’s delusional to think these protesters, who are often willing to break the law and put themselves in danger, will hear a Homan sound bite and suddenly say, “Well, by golly, you know, I was going to listen to my 45,000 TikTok followers telling me that I’m a hero to sacred democracy if I go out there and and give my life for the cause. But now, you know, that was just a great 60-second quip by Tom Homan,” Deace mocks.

If the Trump administration is serious about squashing this anti-ICE movement in Minnesota, it’s going to “take more commitment than that,” he declares.

Right now, “blue city-states” within red states, like Austin, Texas, are watching how Homan and the Trump administration handle Minnesota, says Deace. If a strict precedent isn’t set, he fears that similar anti-ICE protest movements will sprout up across the country.

Deace explains Homan’s role in Minnesota using the analogy of President Abraham Lincoln sending Union General William T. Sherman to capture the key Confederate city of Atlanta during the Civil War. The campaign involved heavy fighting, destruction of supplies and railroads, and a lot of hardship for people in the area, but it was necessary to win the war.

“This is Lincoln calling Sherman in and saying, ‘Atlanta’s a problem; go and solve it,’ all right? And I’m all for that, but we need to understand, then, sometimes you have to solve things the way that Sherman did. Sometimes the solutions are not easy,” says Deace.

“We have to understand now: We are never quelling their desire. We have to defeat it.”

Want more from Steve Deace?

To enjoy more of Steve’s take on national politics, Christian worldview, and principled conservatism with a snarky twist, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.