One thing Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is good at is not taking responsibility for anything—even after hosting press conference after press conference, calling for his own citizens to ignore the rule of law, and requiring his own police department to stand down in the face of rampant lawlessness.
Look at the officer’s reaction.
— Gain of Fauci (@DschlopesIsBack) January 16, 2026
Jacob Frey is a very dangerous man pushing for violence and should resign immediately. pic.twitter.com/B8ZdP2x4ZJ
It’s well documented, after months of chaos on his streets, that Frey was willing to destroy his city and put his own citizens at risk of injury or death rather than help federal law enforcement apprehend killers, rapists, violent criminals, and, yes, people who broke the law to enter the United States.
Had he just done what other mayors have done, which is to allow his police department to keep the peace while federal law enforcement does its sworn duty, most likely two people wouldn’t have died. And, most likely, Frey’s city would not have suffered economic damage to the tune of $200 million.
In the last week, U.S. border czar Tom Homan announced the end to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Minneapolis. This means the withdrawal of roughly 2,000 federal agents.
According to the White House, “More than 4,000 criminal illegal aliens — including violent killers, rapists, gang members, and other public safety threats — have been arrested in Minnesota” since ICE launched what it dubbed Operation Metro Surge.
There’s no telling how much crime was prevented by this, or how many lives were saved in the process. You can’t track crimes that don’t happen.
But what you can track is what happens to a town when the police force is not allowed to do its job, what happens when you allow an organized anarchist force to take control of your city—even to the point of creating activist-controlled checkpoints on American streets.
Anti-ICE activist describes roadblocks and checkpoints constructed in Minneapolis:
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) February 4, 2026
“We are literally creating a place that we know who's coming and going in and out of our neighborhoods."
You can’t make it up. pic.twitter.com/oWiPJI3PH1
Frey held a press conference after Homan announced the ICE drawdown, this time trying to pin the problems he created on…guess who?
You’re right. President Donald Trump.
In quick order, Frey was able to assess the damage he created but shift the blame to the Trump administration in a 38-page report his staff put together.
According to KSTP-TV in Minneapolis, Frey cites $81 million in “lost revenue for small businesses; $47 million in lost wages for people who were afraid to leave home; $38 million in unrealized construction value; and $4.7 million so far in hotel cancellations extending through the summer.”
What this reveals, in part, is that Frey knew what he was doing to his own city and didn’t care. Of course, none of this data is all that reliable; one data point is outright suspicious. How do you track “$47 million in lost wages for people who were afraid to leave home”?
Still, it only makes sense that after what Frey put his city through, it did suffer some major economic damage. People did avoid that city and the state of Minnesota as a result. When you combine the problems associated with the terroristic “ICE Watch” movement with the massive amount of Somali fraud and corruption that still has yet to be fully investigated, it’s safe to assume Minneapolis has taken and will take a huge financial hit. And it all converged at the same time.
Want to guess what Frey is doing with that report now? You guessed it right once again: He’s asking the state and the Trump administration for “financial relief.” That’s correct. He wants to blame Trump for creating a problem he created, and now he wants Trump to give him the money and fix the problem for him – without giving Trump any credit, of course.
Frey’s report also estimated that roughly 76,000 residents had the need for financial support for rent and for food, totaling approximately $25 million. Even though he refused to let his police department ensure law and order, the city still incurred $6 million in expenses to “respond to ICE’s presence in Minneapolis.”
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported, “The federal immigration operation meant long hours for city employees as they answered 911 calls from residents and ICE agents; put police on standby and sent them to tense scenes, standoffs and shootings; and led to lots of cleanups after protests and incidents.
“The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) extended shifts, canceled days off and called in officers for emergencies. When MPD canceled days off during five days in January, it cost the city about $3 million — more than the $2.3 million in budgeted overtime for all of 2026.”
Keep in mind that they paid all of that for an MPD that they would not allow to protect ICE agents and control those who were putting themselves and others at risk by impeding ICE operations.
Now, the mayor will have to answer to taxpayers in his town, because if he doesn’t get the outside money he plans to request, he may have to enact higher property taxes on city residents.
When it gets to the ground level, it gets real. Eric Enge with the Uptown Association talked to KSTP and said that many of the association’s members saw a reduction in “foot traffic” anywhere from 25% to 80%. He told the TV station, “Some businesses are going to close.”
KSTP reported that Gov. Tim Walz has already “proposed $10 million in relief for affected small businesses.”
If you go by all the reports of corruption from his state, for Governor Fabulous, $10 million is just "walking-around money."
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