<\/p>\n
Donald Trump<\/a> claimed without offering further details that he would \u201cde-escalate a little bit\u201d his immigration enforcement crackdown in Minnesota<\/a> as he tried to quell the backlash to two fatal shootings by federal agents, even as the raids continued without pause.<\/p>\n The president did not say whether he would direct a change in tactics and federal immigration raids continued in the state, including an incident on Tuesday during which agents tried to enter the consulate of Ecuador in Minneapolis<\/a> without a warrant.<\/p>\n The fallout from the killing of Alex Pretti on Saturday has continued to dog the White House<\/a> even as Trump travelled to a rally in Iowa to deliver remarks about the economy in the hopes of bolstering Republicans ahead of the midterm elections in November.<\/p>\n Trump hedged his views on the killing of Pretti, telling reporters before the Iowa event that he did not think Pretti was an \u201cassassin\u201d, a term used by his deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, but he continued to blame Pretti for carrying a gun he was licensed to possess.<\/p>\n The backlash has nonetheless remained ferocious towards the aggressive tactics of agents, and the National Rifle Association criticized the administration for dismissing Pretti\u2019s constitutional and legal right to carry a gun.<\/p>\n A third round of No Kings protests is being planned for 28 March \u2013 galvanized by the killing of two US citizens in back-to-back incidents in the immigration operation in Minnesota<\/a>. Organized by a groups around the country, the demonstration is expected by some to draw as many as 9 million people, which would make it the largest protest in US history.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is in large part a response to a combination of heinous attacks on our democracy and communities coming from the regime, and a sense that nobody\u2019s coming to save us,\u201d said Ezra Levin, the co-executive director of the non-profit Indivisible.<\/p>\n Trump insisted on Tuesday that he was waiting for the results of a \u201cvery honorable and honest investigation\u201d into Pretti\u2019s shooting, which is being conducted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency of the US border patrol. There has been no civil rights investigation by the US justice department, as was until recently typical practice in federal officer-related shootings.<\/p>\n