Let’s begin with the bad news: The probability of further violence is still sky-high, and more people will almost certainly die. Protesters are radicalizing by the minute.
But the good news is, this is a winnable PR war for the GOP.
We’ll delve into our PR tactics in just a sec. But before we do, here are a pair of “thought experiments” that explain why they’ll work.
First, imagine there are two groups of Americans. The first group watches the video of the ICE shooting in super slow-mo (which is how most of the mainstream media has been airing the footage: Networks are treating it like the Zapruder sequel, with each frame individually analyzed).
The second group watches the video in real time — with nothing slowed down.
Why?
It’s kind of like instant replay in the NFL: When you review a play from half a dozen camera angles in super slow-mo, it’s easy to spot officiating mistakes.
But when you watch it again in real-time, you realize that the ICE officer had to make a life-or-death decision in the blink of an eye. A 4,000-pound Honda Pilot in the hands of a criminal, with its wheels spinning on icy roads, posed a clear and present danger to the officers.
The second “thought experiment” involves Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. He’s gained a ton of media attention — and glowing praise from the left — after telling ICE to “get the f*** out of Minneapolis.”
Ask yourself: If Mayor Frey had gone in the other direction, pulled a Rodney King, and instead of dropping F-bombs, pled for calmness to prevail (“Can’t we all just g-g-g-get along?”), would his national profile be higher or lower?
So we already know the Democratic playbook for the ICE shooting:
Ratchet up the rhetoric.
Demonize and Nazify the ICE agents.
Use the mainstream media and/or social media to publicize the super slow-mo footage.
Encourage bigger, louder, and more aggressive demonstrations.
Create so much public chaos that ICE can no longer function.
The GOP PR playbook should go as follows:
1) Keep talking about the Somali fraud scandal! We want it to be part and parcel of the ICE narrative — and when liberals scream about getting ICE “the f*** out” of their cities, we want the public to wonder why they’re so hellbent on defending immigrant crime, fraud, and theft.
2) Stop promoting the slow-mo footage! Do the opposite: Accentuate the split-second decision-making of the ICE officers. Show how little time they actually had to make a life-or-death decision — and condemn the politicians and protesters who’re inciting violence and making EVERYONE’s lives more dangerous.
3) Publicize other examples of violence against ICE agents and law enforcement. If we’re going to argue that ICE agents were legitimately fearful for their lives, we need to show examples. (Sadly, there’s no shortage of anti-ICE footage. It’s become dangerous work.)
4) Celebrate ICE’s bravery. It’s time to have an awards ceremony for the top ICE agents, where the nobility of their mission — and concrete examples of how they’ve made our cities safer — are highlighted. (If we don’t proactively defend ICE from vilification and Nazification, the liberals will succeed in rebranding ICE as a modern-day Gestapo. We want to turn ‘em into heroes.)
5) Don’t cede even an inch. Even if you have doubts whether or not lethal force was absolutely necessary, the first side to admit ANY culpability will lose. There’s no off-ramp — no “middle ground” where we can land the plane. It’s an all-or-nothing situation.
https://pjmedia.com/scott-pinsker/2026/01/09/the-gop-has-one-chance-to-win-the-pr-war-over-the-ice-shooting-heres-the-playbook-n4948079
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