Trump admin is about to become 'crueler' and 'less accountable': expert

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 15, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

During a press conference on Thursday, January 15, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt angrily lashed out at The Hill's Niall Stanage when he questioned the Trump administration's account of the fatal shooting of unarmed 37-year-old motorist Renee Nicole Good by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis. Leavitt attacked Stanage as a "left-wing hack," doubling down on the claim that Ross acted in self-defense — a claim that many others are refuting.

In a Friday episode of The New Republic's podcast, "The Daily Blast," host Greg Sargent pointed to Leavitt's tirade against Stanage as an indication that the Trump administration will only double down on its severe immigration policies and militarization of law enforcement — an argument that his guest, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council, agreed with.

Sargent noted that Stanage is "not a liberal flamethrower by any stretch," describing his questions as perfectly reasonable.

Reichlin-Melnick told Sargent that Stanage's question "really goes to the fact that a lot of Americans have seen this video, and they don't like what they see."

"In fact, polling so far suggests that a majority of Americans think that the shooting was not justified," Reichlin-Melnick continued. "And it's really crucially important to understand, of course, that there is a difference between legally justified within the very narrow line of whether or not a police officer used their force lawfully and the sort of more basic question of, 'Should the officer have shot Ms. Good rather than simply stepping aside?'"

"And so, that is why the American public are asking this question and trying to figure out whether there's going to be any accountability at all," he added.

The American Immigration Council senior fellow doubts that Trump's immigration policies will grow any less draconian and fears that the worst is yet to come.

Reichlin-Melnick told Sargent: "It's going to get bigger, it's going to get crueler, and it's going to get less accountable — at least for now. Right now, there is very little pushback from anyone who has power. We've seen the GOP and Congress more interested in holding hearings into things that happened years ago. We see the Trump administration — as we chronicled in our report — actually slashed internal oversight bodies."

Listen to The New Republic's full podcast at this link or read the transcript here.

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