Trump on Pretti and Good: 'It should've not happened'
President of the United States
“No. I don't. It should've not happened. It was a very sad -- to me it was a very sad incident, two incidents.”
Source and context
Interview
About this source
Full NBC News transcript of Tom Llamas's Oval Office interview with President Trump, in which Llamas asks whether Good's and Pretti's conduct justified what happened to them and Trump answers on the record.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
NBC News anchor Tom Llamas asked Trump directly, after Trump had described Pretti and Good as not being angels, whether their conduct justified what happened to them.
After the quotation
Trump added that he was not happy with what happened and said ICE personnel felt worse about the incidents than anyone else, while continuing to support the administration's immigration enforcement operations.
How this statement is classified
Case context: Were Border Patrol Agent Jesus Ochoa and CBP Officer Raymundo Gutierrez justified in fatally shooting Alex Pretti?
The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.
Why this label?
Trump directly answers 'no' when asked whether the shootings were justified and says they should not have happened, which is not a defense of the agents' conduct. But in the same exchange he emphasizes that Pretti and Good 'were not angels' and continues to back the underlying enforcement operation. The statement mixes acknowledgment that the outcome was wrong with conditional language about the victims' own conduct, rather than offering a clean condemnation of the agents' use of force.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Jesus Ochoa, Raymundo Gutierrez
Were Border Patrol Agent Jesus Ochoa and CBP Officer Raymundo Gutierrez justified in fatally shooting Alex Pretti?
Explore the case context, sources and public responses.
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