Trump knocks Alex Pretti as 'insurrectionist' after release of video footage

President Donald Trump on Friday had harsh words for late demonstrator Alex Pretti after video footage showing him breaking a taillight on a federal vehicle and tussling with agents days before his death became public.

Pretti died during a physical altercation with Border Patrol agents last weekend. Initial footage showed an agent shoot him during the exchange and the Department of Homeland Security placed the agents on leave. Pretti's death became a rallying point for opponents of Trump's mass deportations. Trump, for his part, suggested that the revelations of his prior violent altercations with law enforcement had diminished his legacy.

"Agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist, Alex Pretti’s stock has gone way down with the just released video of him screaming and spitting in the face of a very calm and under control ICE Officer, and then crazily kicking in a new and very expensive government vehicle, so hard and violent, in fact, that the taillight broke off in pieces," he posted on Truth Social. "It was quite a display of abuse and anger, for all to see, crazed and out of control. The ICE Officer was calm and cool, not an easy thing to be under those circumstances!"

Trump previously posted a video of Pretti kicking the vehicle, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., superimposed and speaking of Pretti has a calm and harmless figure.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.