Did trump say one less nurse in ICU?
Executive summary
There is no record in the reporting provided that President Donald Trump said the phrase “one less nurse in ICU.” Multiple outlets document that Trump posted about the Minneapolis shooting on his Truth Social feed and that the man killed, Alex Pretti, was identified by family and records as an intensive care unit nurse, but none of the articles or snippets supplied attribute that specific line to the president or show him celebrating the death of a nurse [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What the reporting does show about Trump’s public reaction
News outlets captured Trump posting on Truth Social after federal officers shot a man in Minneapolis during an immigration enforcement action, and his messaging framed the operation and its consequences within the broader immigration crackdown instituted by his administration; several pieces note the post but do not quote the words “one less nurse in ICU” [1] [5] [6]. NPR summarized the administration’s communications around a raft of immigration actions and other topics, confirming Trump’s active public commentary but not that particular phrase [7].
2. Who the victim was, according to multiple sources
Local and national reporting consistently identifies the man who was shot as Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, and repeatedly states that his parents and public records describe him as an intensive care unit nurse who worked at a VA facility, a fact cited by the Associated Press, CBC, MedPage Today, PBS and other outlets in the supplied reporting [2] [3] [4] [8]. Those accounts include family statements, a hospital colleague’s social media post, and state nursing license records referenced in MedPage Today [3].
3. The claim being asked about — and why it matters — is not documented in the provided coverage
The question centers on whether Trump uttered a specific, incendiary line implying satisfaction at the loss of a nurse; none of the supplied articles quote him saying that, nor do they report aides or spokespeople repeating that phrase, which suggests the phrase is either misattributed, originates outside the cited reporting, or is a paraphrase that reporters did not record [1] [5] [6]. It is important to distinguish between Trump’s documented social-media posts about the operation and an unattributed, striking statement that would likely have been reported had it been made publicly by the president or his press office [1] [7].
4. Alternative explanations and how such a claim could spread
Misinformation or paraphrase can arise in fast-moving, emotionally charged stories: reporters and social-media users sometimes summarize or interpret a leader’s tone rather than transcribe exact words, and that interpretive language can harden into a false direct quote as it circulates; the sources here show active social-media discussion and political reactions to the shooting but do not corroborate the alleged quote [1] [5]. Separately, viral social-media incidents involving medical workers making offensive comments about public figures have precedent in reporting (for example, nurses fired or criticized after viral videos), which can muddy perceptions and lead audiences to conflate separate events [9] [10].
5. Conclusion and limits of available evidence
Based on the supplied reporting, the direct answer is: no — there is no evidence in these articles that Trump said “one less nurse in ICU”; the president did post about the shooting and the administration defended the operation, and the victim was widely reported to be an ICU nurse, but the precise quoted phrase does not appear in the material provided [1] [2] [3] [4]. This analysis is limited to the sources supplied; if the phrase appeared in an unreviewed interview, private message, or a smaller outlet not included here, that would not be reflected in this summary, and further verification from a primary transcript or an authoritative recording would be needed to settle the claim definitively.