President Says He Ordered 700 Agents to Leave Minnesota

What We’re Covering Today

Minnesota ICE Surge: President Trump said he had personally ordered the withdrawal of hundreds of federal agents involved in the contentious immigration crackdown in Minnesota. In an interview with NBC, Mr. Trump insisted the enforcement effort — which has faced intense criticism over the deaths of two U.S. citizens at the hands of immigration agents — would remain “tough” while also suggesting that his administration could use a “softer touch.” Read more ›

Minnesota ICE Surge: President Trump said he had personally ordered the withdrawal of hundreds of federal agents involved in the contentious immigration crackdown in Minnesota. In an interview with NBC, Mr. Trump insisted the enforcement effort — which has faced intense criticism over the deaths of two U.S. citizens at the hands of immigration agents — would remain “tough” while also suggesting that his administration could use a “softer touch.” Read more ›

Nike Investigation: A panel created to enforce laws against job discrimination opened an inquiry into Nike for policies it said hurt white workers. The chair of the panel, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has made diversity, equity and inclusion programs a target since taking the role last year. Read more ›

Nike Investigation: A panel created to enforce laws against job discrimination opened an inquiry into Nike for policies it said hurt white workers. The chair of the panel, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has made diversity, equity and inclusion programs a target since taking the role last year. Read more ›

Prosecutor Fired: An exasperated federal prosecutor who told a judge on Tuesday that her job “sucks” is said to have been fired from the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis. The prosecutor, Julie T. Le, had complained to the judge about the heavy caseload stemming from the administration’s immigration crackdown and sardonically said she would welcome being held in contempt because it would allow her to get a good night’s sleep. Read more ›

Prosecutor Fired: An exasperated federal prosecutor who told a judge on Tuesday that her job “sucks” is said to have been fired from the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis. The prosecutor, Julie T. Le, had complained to the judge about the heavy caseload stemming from the administration’s immigration crackdown and sardonically said she would welcome being held in contempt because it would allow her to get a good night’s sleep. Read more ›

Madeleine Ngo and Mitch Smith

Homan says D.H.S. is pulling 700 officers out of Minneapolis.

President Trump said on Wednesday that he personally ordered the withdrawal of 700 law enforcement officers involved in the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota and that his administration could use a “softer touch.”

The administration had sent thousands of federal officers and agents to Minnesota starting in December, a deployment that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said was the agency’s “largest operation to date.” But the surge drew criticism because of the aggressive tactics used by immigration officers, and outrage intensified after two U.S. citizens were fatally shot in confrontations with federal authorities.

In an interview with NBC, Mr. Trump said the administration’s approach would continue to be “tough” and he urged local officials to cooperate with federal immigration officers. “It didn’t come from me because I just wanted to do it,” he said. “We are waiting for them to release prisoners.”

Earlier in the day, Tom Homan, the White House border czar, said about 2,000 officers and agents would be left in the state.

Mr. Homan said the change came after an “unprecedented number of counties” were cooperating with federal officials and allowing ICE to take custody of unauthorized immigrants before they were released from jails. But he did not specify which counties had increased their cooperation.

“This is smart law enforcement, not less law enforcement,” Mr. Homan said.

As of last month, sheriffs in at least seven of Minnesota’s 87 counties had signed agreements with ICE to collaborate with the agency on immigration enforcement, sharing information about inmates who might be in the country unlawfully. The state’s Department of Corrections has long worked closely with ICE, notifying the agency when an immigrant convicted of a felony is set to be released.

But Hennepin County’s jail has had a policy of refusing to share information with ICE for basic immigration enforcement since 2019 over concerns about public safety and undocumented immigrants’ reluctance to report crimes. Minneapolis is in Hennepin County.

Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, has said that agreements to hold detainees for federal officials require the approval of a county’s elected board.

State and local officials said the drawdown was welcome but did not go far enough. Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, a Democrat, said in a statement that the reduction in officers was “a step in the right direction” but that 2,000 federal officers in the region was still “not de-escalation.”

“My message to the White House has been consistent — Operation Metro Surge has been catastrophic for our businesses and residents,” he said, referring to the name of the federal crackdown in the city. “It needs to end immediately.”

The message was echoed by Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, also a Democrat, in a statement.

“Today’s announcement is a step in the right direction, but we need a faster and larger drawdown of forces, state-led investigations into the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, and an end to this campaign of retribution,” Mr. Walz said, referring to the two Americans who were killed in encounters with federal immigration officers.

Mr. Trump tasked Mr. Homan with taking over the enforcement operation in Minnesota last week, days after Mr. Pretti, an intensive care nurse, was fatally shot by officers with Customs and Border Protection. Mr. Pretti’s killing worsened tensions in the region and prompted some Republicans to criticize the Trump administration’s operations. His death came more than two weeks after Ms. Good was shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.

Shortly after the shootings, Department of Homeland Security officials said that federal officers acted in self-defense in both cases, and that Mr. Pretti and Ms. Good intended to harm law enforcement officials. Those accounts have conflicted with witness videos and accounts by local officials.

Outside the B.H. Whipple Federal Building near Minneapolis on Wednesday, a small contingent of protesters, who have maintained a daily presence outside the building for weeks, listened to Mr. Homan’s remarks on radios.

James Woehrle, 78, said he was not impressed by the number included in the drawdown. “We’re already overwhelmed,” he said. “Seven hundred? I don’t know if you’d even know the difference.”

Mr. Homan also said on Wednesday that there would be a reorganization of law enforcement officers on the ground. Agents from C.B.P. and ICE would now be under “one unified chain of command.” Last week, the Trump administration decided to move Gregory Bovino, a top Border Patrol official whose enforcement tactics have prompted controversy, out of the Minneapolis region.

Mr. Homan did not provide a timeline for the full drawdown of the operation, saying that it was dependent on the continued cooperation of local and state officials, along with a decrease in the violence and rhetoric aimed at immigration officers.

Minnesota sheriffs have discussed entering into agreements with the federal government that would allow them to hold detainees sought by immigration agents for up to 48 hours past when they would otherwise be released, said James Stuart, the executive director of the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association.

The agreements that would need to be changed by county boards to do this are known as “basic ordering agreements,” he said. They would apply to people who were arrested on local charges, who were wanted for immigration violations and who were slated to be released.

Those people would remain in jail for up to 48 hours, Mr. Stuart said, but during that time they would become federal detainees in the custody of the local sheriff rather than local detainees.

Minnesota officials were also discussing ways to improve communication with federal officials, Mr. Stuart said. Some were open to making arrangements to transfer more local detainees to ICE officials inside a jail, a process that law enforcement considers to be safer than making a new arrest after a person is released onto the streets.

Mr. Homan on Wednesday suggested that efforts to impede immigration enforcement could prolong the deployment in Minnesota.

“I’ve been saying this for almost a year now: Hateful or extreme rhetoric against ICE personnel is completely unacceptable,” Mr. Homan said. “If the hateful rhetoric didn’t stop, I was afraid there would be bloodshed, and there has been.”

The Trump administration’s crackdown in the region has resulted in weekslong clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers. Residents opposed to the crackdown have blown whistles, honked car horns and shouted profanities at immigration agents. Federal officers have deployed pepper spray and responded violently at times.

In the past month, 158 people have been arrested in connection with assaulting or impeding law enforcement officers, Mr. Homan said.

Ernesto Londoño, Erica L. Green and Claire Fahy contributed reporting

President Trump said in the interview that the two people who were killed by immigration authorities, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis were “no angels” but that he was “not happy” they were killed. He maintained, however, that he will “always” be on the side of law enforcement: “If we don’t back them, we don’t have a country.”

President Trump refused to rebuke Kristi Noem, his homeland security secretary, in the NBC interview amid outrage over the killing of two people by federal agents in Minneapolis. He blamed the media for not giving Noem “credit for the job that she does,” namely her role in stemming illegal immigration into the country: “She was in charge of the border. The border is closed.”

A White House statement said “more than 4,000 dangerous criminal illegal aliens” had been arrested in Minnesota. Similar claims by the Trump administration characterizing the majority of the people arrested as violent criminals have been proven false. Most of the immigrants that ICE has arrested since Trump took office have no criminal record.

The White House said in a statement that federal agents have arrested more than 4,000 people in Minnesota over the last two months during President Trump’s crackdown on immigrants in the state. That number is comparable to the 5,000 arrests that Trump officials said were made over two-and-a-half months in Los Angeles last year. Two people protesting the crackdown were shot and killed by federal agents in Minnesota: Renée Good and Alex Pretti. A third person, Victor Manuel Diaz, died in ICE custody in El Paso, Texas, after being arrested in Minneapolis last month.

President Trump said in an interview with NBC News that a lesson he had learned from Minneapolis, where two Americans were shot dead during his immigration crackdown, was that the administration could use a “softer touch” in its enforcement activities, though he added that “you still have to be tough.”

He said that the order to withdraw 700 federal immigration agents from Minnesota, which was announced by his border czar Tom Homan earlier today, came directly from him. “It didn’t come from me because I just wanted to do it,” he said. “We are waiting for them to release prisoners.”

President Trump said on social media that he spoke with Savannah Guthrie, an anchor on the “Today” show whose mother is missing, and told her that he has directed federal law enforcement to be at her family’s “complete disposal.” He added, “We are deploying all resources to get her mother home safely. The prayers of our Nation are with her and her family.”

Erica L. Green is a White House Correspondent. She reported from Washington.

China’s Xi presses Trump on Taiwan in a phone call.

President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China had a lengthy phone call on Wednesday during which, Mr. Trump said, the two leaders discussed a wide range of issues — including Iran, the war in Ukraine and soybeans — ahead of Mr. Trump’s visit to China this spring.

But the call, which Mr. Trump enthusiastically described as “excellent” and “long and thorough,” included a warning from Mr. Xi about an issue that Mr. Trump has tiptoed around: the future of Taiwan.

In Mr. Trump’s description of the call, posted to his Truth Social account, he listed the issue of Taiwan among more than a half-dozen topics — “all very positive” — that the two had discussed. The call lasted almost two hours, according to people familiar with it. Mr. Trump said they discussed his trip to China for a high-stakes summit in April, as the two leaders have sought to ease tensions in recent months after engaging in an aggressive trade war shortly after Mr. Trump took office. The two last met in October in South Korea, where they agreed to a yearlong trade truce. The two did not discuss Taiwan during that meeting.

“The relationship with China, and my personal relationship with President Xi, is an extremely good one, and we both realize how important it is to keep it that way,” Mr. Trump wrote in the social media post. “I believe that there will be many positive results achieved over the next three years of my Presidency having to do with President Xi, and the People’s Republic of China!"

But a description of the call from Chinese state media was much more forceful, and suggested that the issue of Taiwan was front and center.

Mr. Xi told Mr. Trump that the American position on Taiwan was “the most important issue in China-U.S. relations,” it said, and asserted that China “will never allow Taiwan to be separated from China.”

“The U.S. must handle arms sales to Taiwan with extreme caution,” Mr. Xi told Mr. Trump, according to the description in Chinese state media.

It is not unusual for China to include the issue of Taiwan among its priorities in diplomatic talks with the United States, but the warning comes just months after the U.S. in December approved an arms package for Taiwan valued at more than $11 billion.

After the call, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that while it supports efforts to ensure regional stability and security, it would continue to strengthen its defenses. The ministry also noted that the United States has continued to sell arms to Taiwan.

Ryan Hass, the director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution, said that Mr. Xi’s statement was notably “pointed and sharp.” He said it was clear that Mr. Xi “wants to put down a marker now, so that he can show he’s on the case when it comes to Taiwan, both domestically and to President Trump.”

“He’s trying to set the table for telling President Trump, ‘When you come in April, be ready to have a serious, sit-down conversation about Taiwan because it’s very important to me,’” Mr. Hass said.

The United States recognizes a single Chinese government in Beijing under a “One China” policy, and maintains formal diplomatic ties with the mainland, but it acknowledges only China’s belief that Taiwan is part of China and maintains informal ties with Taiwan’s government.

A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters, said that the American position on Taiwan has not changed.

But Mr. Xi’s assertion also comes as Mr. Trump has threatened to invade and take over sovereign nations, which has raised concerns among experts that he would be unlikely to stop his allies and adversaries from pursuing their own such endeavors.

And Mr. Trump has made it clear that he is willing to walk a delicate line on Taiwan as not to upset Beijing; last year, the administration blocked Taiwan’s leader from stopping in New York to avoid offending China as it sought to broker a trade deal and a summit between Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi.

In an interview with The New York Times last month, Mr. Trump boasted about how Mr. Xi was “impressed” with his incursion into Venezuela to capture its leader and seize its oil.

When asked if Mr. Xi could look to the operation as a precedent to invade and control Taiwan, Mr. Trump said that China didn’t face the same threat — such as drug dealers pouring into its country, as Mr. Trump has claimed — as the U.S. did from Venezuela.

But presented with the idea that Taiwan could be seen as a threat to China, Mr. Trump then conceded that Taiwan “was a source of pride” for Mr. Xi.

“He considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him, what he’s going to be doing,” Mr. Trump said. “But, you know, I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that.”

Edward Wong, Ana Swanson and Amy Chang Chien contributed reporting.

When asked about artificial intelligence killing jobs, President Trump said in the NBC interview, “No, no, it’s not killing. It’s going to create a lot of jobs.” He refused to acknowledge that companies like Amazon were making large cuts as they anticipate big changes driven by A.I., and instead, focused on how it will be the “greatest” producer of military and medical jobs.

Farnaz Fassihi has lived and worked in Iran, has covered the country for three decades and was a war correspondent in the Middle East for 15 years.

The U.S. and Iran are set to hold talks in Oman on Friday.

Iran and the United States will meet for a new round of negotiations on Friday in Oman, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and the White House said on Wednesday, after days of conflicting reports on the talks’ timing, location and format.

Mr. Araghchi and his team were expected to hold a face-to-face meeting with Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, according to three senior Iranian officials. Oman’s foreign minister, as the host, was also expected to be present.

The White House on Wednesday confirmed that the meeting would take place in Oman with Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner. Mr. Araghchi announced on social media that the talks would take place in the Omani capital, Muscat.

The meeting on Friday would be the first time that Tehran and Washington held talks since the 12-day war in June with Israel that culminated in American fighter jets bombing and severely damaging Iran’s three main nuclear facilities, effectively halting its nuclear program. Although they haven’t met since June, Mr. Araghchi and Mr. Witkoff have been in direct contact by text intermittently, according to Iranian and American officials.

For the past week, regional countries have been mediating between Iran and the United States to avert a war, telling both sides that another conflict could spread and destabilize the Middle East.

Mr. Trump has threatened Iran with a “massive armada” after moving warships near Iran, and had vowed to carry out military strikes against the country “with speed and violence” if it did not accept U.S. demands to freeze its nuclear program and discard its stockpile of enriched uranium; reduce the range of its ballistic missiles; and stop arming and funding militant groups in the region.

Iran has said that caving in to Mr. Trump’s demands would amount to surrendering and has threatened to respond forcefully to any attack by striking U.S. military targets in the region and Israel.

The threats of military strikes came after a nationwide uprising in Iran in early January, with protesters demanding the end of the Islamic Republic’s rule. Iran crushed the protests with lethal force, killing at least 6,883 people, according to Human Rights Activists News Agency, a Washington-based group focused on Iran. The group said the numbers could rise significantly when the verification process was complete.

“Iran is going to have to sit down and talk because they have no other option,” Sina Azodi, director of the Middle East studies program at George Washington University, said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “They either have to risk war or sit down and talk because Donald Trump has taken the concept of gunboat diplomacy literally.”

For the past few days, details about the talks have gone back and forth. Talks were first scheduled for Friday in Istanbul, given Turkey’s leading role as a mediator. Foreign ministers from regional Arab countries, including Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, were invited to participate.

But Iran balked. On Tuesday, Tehran requested a last-minute change of venue and format. It asked that the meeting be held in Oman and to limit attendees to Iranian and American representatives, according to the three senior Iranian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive issues.

Iran’s senior leadership was concerned, the officials said, that a meeting with wider participation would make it seem as if Mr. Trump was putting on a “show” and Iran was being cornered into negotiating with the entire region and not just Washington.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on Wednesday to reporters that Iran had asked to change the meeting place. He also said that in order for the talks to be meaningful, discussions would have to include the nuclear program, the range of Iran’s ballistic missiles, its support for regional militias and its treatment of its citizens.

The three Iranian officials said the planned talks nearly collapsed on Wednesday morning, when Mr. Araghchi informed Arab counterparts that if the United States insisted on broadening the discussion beyond Iran’s nuclear program, talks would be called off. As news of Iran’s stance emerged, the country’s currency, the rial, took a nosedive against the American dollar.

Arab countries in the region and Turkey mobilized to persuade both sides to hold the meeting in Oman on Friday and not to lose the momentum, according to an Arab official from the region and the three Iranian officials. The Arab official also insisted on not being named because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Then, talks were back on again, with Mr. Araghchi saying on social media that he was grateful for “our Omani brothers for making all the necessary arrangements."

Ali Vaez, the Iran director of the International Crisis Group, a research institution, said Iran was walking a fine line between maintaining control over the talks and not alienating Arab allies and Turkey.

“They are thinking if we are seen as desperate for a deal, then we will be bullied at the table, so we should impose our own conditions of where the table will be, who will be at the table and so on,” Mr. Vaez said.

The three Iranian officials and the Arab official said that, in the end, everyone had given an inch. The United States agreed that the talks would be held in Oman and exclude regional actors. Iranian officials agreed to meet face-to-face with their American counterparts. And both sides agreed to focus on the nuclear program but to also discuss missiles and militant groups, with the goal of coming up with a framework for a deal.

“At the end of the day, the United States is prepared to engage, has always been prepared to engage with Iran,” Mr. Rubio told reporters on Wednesday.

Tyler Pager contributed reporting.

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the capital of Turkey. It is Ankara, not Istanbul.

When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at corrections@nytimes.com.Learn more

In an interview with NBC News, President Trump said he would not have picked Kevin M. Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve if the former central bank governor wanted to raise interest rates. Trump has repeatedly demanded the independent institution make borrowing costs much lower. When asked if there was any doubt in his mind that the central bank would lower interest rates, Trump said, “Not much.” When asked whether he believed the Fed chair should answer to him, President Trump said the Fed is, “in theory,” independent, adding, “But I think I’m a smart guy. I know the economy better than almost anybody.”