Analysis of: Trump says Pretti and Good were ‘not angels’ while signalling ‘softer touch’ on immigration crackdown – US politics live
The Guardian | February 5, 2026
TL;DR
Trump defends ICE killings while media layoffs gut watchdog journalism. The convergence reveals how state violence and corporate media consolidation both serve to discipline working-class resistance.
Analytical Focus:Class Analysis Contradictions Interconnections
This collection of news items reveals the interconnected mechanisms through which working-class power is being systematically dismantled across multiple fronts. Trump's characterization of ICE shooting victims as 'not angels' performs crucial ideological work: it retroactively justifies state violence by delegitimizing its targets, while his simultaneous pledge to 'always be with law enforcement' signals that such violence will continue with impunity. The reduction of 700 federal agents from Minneapolis represents not a victory for community resistance but a tactical repositioning—the administration's 'softer touch' rhetoric masks continued militarized immigration enforcement. Meanwhile, the Washington Post's elimination of one-third of its workforce, including the journalist covering owner Jeff Bezos's Amazon, demonstrates how capital consolidation in media produces structural conflicts of interest that undermine journalism's democratic function. Editor Matt Murray's framing of mass layoffs as a 'strategic reset' to reach 'customers' reveals the complete subsumption of journalism under market logic—readers become consumers, news becomes product, and critical coverage of concentrated wealth becomes expendable. The National Prayer Breakfast coverage illustrates how religious nationalism provides ideological cover for these material assaults on working people. Trump's rhetoric about 'protecting Christians' from 'anti-Christian bias' redirects class grievances toward culture war targets, obscuring how his administration's policies serve capital against labor. The convergence of militarized immigration enforcement, corporate media consolidation, and religious-nationalist ideology represents a coordinated assault on the material and informational resources workers need to organize effective resistance.
Class Dynamics
Actors: Immigrant workers (ICE targets), ICE and federal law enforcement, Media workers (Washington Post employees), Jeff Bezos (media owner/capital), Trump administration (state managers), Religious-nationalist political coalition, Senate Democrats (Schumer)
Beneficiaries: Employers of undocumented labor (through disciplined, precarious workforce), Media monopolists consolidating industry, Law enforcement agencies gaining expanded powers, Political actors mobilizing nativist sentiment
Harmed Parties: Immigrant communities facing state violence and terror, Laid-off media workers, Readers losing access to investigative journalism, Working class losing informational resources for organizing
The state apparatus (ICE) exercises direct violence against immigrant workers while capital (Bezos) exercises indirect violence through mass layoffs. Trump's rhetoric of backing law enforcement 'or we don't have a country' explicitly frames state violence as foundational to social order. The firing of the Amazon beat reporter while Bezos owns the Post demonstrates how concentrated capital ownership produces self-censorship structures. Senate Democrats' opposition remains within acceptable bounds—calling for ICE withdrawal rather than abolition or challenging the underlying capitalist relations that produce both immigration and its criminalization.
Material Conditions
Economic Factors: Media industry consolidation and declining advertising revenue, Immigrant labor as super-exploitable workforce segment, Amazon's monopoly position and Bezos's media ownership, Cost of militarized border enforcement apparatus
Immigrant workers occupy a structurally precarious position that benefits employers through wage suppression and reduced worker protections. Media workers face proletarianization as journalism transforms from profession to precarious gig. The layoff of the Amazon reporter reveals how ownership of media production shapes what knowledge gets produced about capital.
Resources at Stake: Labor power of immigrant workers, Jobs and livelihoods of media workers, Public access to investigative journalism, Community safety and freedom of movement in immigrant neighborhoods
Historical Context
Precedents: Palmer Raids of 1919-1920 linking immigrant persecution to labor suppression, Media consolidation waves of 1980s-2000s, Historical use of 'criminal' framing to justify state violence against marginalized groups, Religious nationalism's role in legitimating American capitalism
The convergence of immigration crackdowns with economic instability follows historical patterns where capitalist crises produce scapegoating of vulnerable populations. Media consolidation under billionaire ownership (Bezos, Musk) represents the neoliberal phase's extension of market logic into previously semi-autonomous spheres. The 'not angels' rhetoric echoes centuries of victim-blaming that justified violence against enslaved people, labor organizers, and colonized populations.
Contradictions
Primary: Capital requires immigrant labor for accumulation while the state must perform exclusion to maintain legitimacy—producing cycles of criminalization that discipline rather than eliminate undocumented work.
Secondary: Billionaire media ownership claims to serve democratic information while eliminating coverage that scrutinizes billionaire power, Trump's 'softer touch' rhetoric contradicts continued militarized enforcement, Religious freedom rhetoric masks state imposition of particular religious-nationalist ideology, Democrats oppose ICE tactics while accepting enforcement premise
These contradictions are structural rather than resolvable within capitalism. Immigration enforcement will continue oscillating between spectacular crackdowns and quiet exploitation. Media consolidation will accelerate until alternative worker-owned or publicly-funded models emerge. The religious-nationalist coalition may fracture as material conditions worsen for its working-class base, creating openings for class-conscious organizing.
Global Interconnections
The Minneapolis ICE operation connects to global migration patterns driven by climate change, trade agreements destroying local economies, and US intervention in Latin America—the same forces that create refugees then criminalize their movement. The Washington Post layoffs reflect global media consolidation where billionaires worldwide (Murdoch, Bolloré, Bezos) acquire news organizations, reshaping information flows to protect concentrated wealth. The Ukraine-Russia negotiations mentioned in the article reveal the geopolitical backdrop: great power competition for resources and markets that generates both refugee flows and the nationalist ideologies used to divide workers along national lines. The 'critical minerals trading bloc' against China exposes how economic nationalism serves inter-capitalist rivalry while workers of all nations bear the costs through militarization, surveillance, and austerity.
Conclusion
These seemingly disparate stories reveal a coordinated class offensive operating through state violence, media consolidation, and ideological mobilization. The practical implications are clear: workers cannot rely on corporate media to expose state violence or challenge concentrated wealth, and cannot expect either major party to fundamentally challenge immigration enforcement that disciplines labor. Building working-class power requires independent media institutions, cross-border solidarity that refuses nationalist divisions, and organizing strategies that connect immigrant rights to broader labor struggles. The contradictions in this system—capital's need for the labor it criminalizes, media ownership that undermines its own legitimacy—create openings, but only if workers organize to exploit them.
Suggested Reading
- The State and Revolution by V.I. Lenin (1917) Lenin's analysis of the state as an instrument of class rule illuminates how ICE functions as organized violence protecting capitalist property relations and labor discipline.
- Prison Notebooks (Selections) by Antonio Gramsci (1935) Gramsci's concept of hegemony explains how religious nationalism and media framing manufacture consent for state violence while obscuring class interests.
- The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon (1961) Fanon's analysis of colonial violence and dehumanization illuminates Trump's 'not angels' rhetoric and the psychological dimensions of racialized state terror.