It’s hackneyed to frame America as divided. It’s the rawness which catches me these days.
Everything here feels torn in two; different sides so far apart and so alarmed at the behaviour of the other.
It’s genuinely frightening to wonder where this might go next.
I’ve spent the past few days in Minneapolis as the midwestern city absorbed the killing of Alex Pretti. The voices on the streets there echo.
“Leave us alone. We don’t need y’all here. We don’t want y’all here.”
“How many more people have to die?”
Drive for 250 miles in a dead straight line, south, along Interstate 35 from Minneapolis and you eventually reach Des Moines.
Minnesota becomes Iowa and a blue Democrat state becomes a red Republican one.
Iowa is Trump country. He’s here for a rally to kick off the midterm election season.
It’s a good place to test the mood. Because if there is anxiety here, well that’s a problem for him.
Four hours before the rally’s start time, a lone merch seller was braving the -15C weather outside the Horizon Event Center in the Des Moines suburbs.
“USA, USA,” he shouted. “The hats are $30… I take cards! Tap and pay!”
For a nation apparently gripped by a cost of living crisis, it didn’t show here. His hats and beanies were flying off the cart he’d stacked full.
Only the most loyal Trump fans would turn up to a rally like this on a Tuesday afternoon in temperatures so low. But I wondered if they had been moved or swayed by the weekend shooting.
What did they make of the killing of an American citizen on an American street by American immigration agents?
“Huge bummer, wished it hadn’t have happened, but I feel like there were a lot of choices made by some people that were not the right ones and that’s just really unfortunate but what happens sometimes,” one woman said.
“Don’t bring a gun to a rally. That’s just dumb,” a man said.
“Isn’t that the Second Amendment right?” I said.
“Is it?” he said.
“Isn’t it?” I replied, confused.
“Pick and choose your battles, right?” he said, closing down the conversation.
“It’s very unfortunate, it’s just it’s terribly sad… I think we have to regain control on many aspects,” another woman said.
A gulf made clear
A couple of young women walked past and a few of their words were carried through the air.
“You see all those weird protesters?”
“Yeah! I took some videos…”
“Weird protesters” – her tone was so telling. She couldn’t comprehend their stance. It was like it had never occurred to her that there could be another way.
It emphasised the gulf: two sides who can’t even begin to understand the other.
‘This is not America’
The “weird” anti-Trump protesters were gathered on the crossroads a hundred metres away. I was surprised by their number, and their anger.
“I think everyone saw the video, it kind of speaks for itself. It was clearly murder,” one man said.
“I think it’s awoken a darkness that has been hiding in the shadows, and too many people are supporting him,” a woman added.
Then an elderly lady, with an emotion I hadn’t anticipated: “I’m 74 years old, and I’ve never seen anything like this in the history of my country. I’m appalled, I’m disgusted. I’m scared. They’re being murdered in the streets for simply saying this is wrong. This is not America. That’s just for the love of God. Please stop it.”
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The president’s motorcade slipped in around the back. He wouldn’t have seen or heard the protesters.
He spoke for an hour. The only mention of the weekend events in Minneapolis? A sentence or two on crime.
“We have brought down crime very substantially. In Minnesota, we’ve taken out thousands of hard criminals, hardened, vicious, horrible criminals,” he said.
That’s a questionable claim at best. The government’s own statistics from ICE raids over the last year show that the overwhelming majority of those arrested had no criminal records at all.
He’d not come to talk about Minneapolis. He’d come, reluctantly, to talk about the economy. That’s what his team think he must focus on.
“We inherited the highest prices in the history of our country, and we’ve rapidly brought them down. And that’s what we want to do…”
A couple of the protesters managed to sneak inside. There were minor interruptions.
“You know they’re paid agitators right?” the president said.
Back outside, the protesters are not paid – of course not. But they are agitated. And it’s growing.
