Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey claims that what’s happening in his city, as anti-ICE protesters and rioters flood the streets following the Renee Good shooting incident, is all about “love.”

“It’s important to tell the whole country that this is not just about resistance here in Minneapolis, it’s about love. We are showing something far more powerful and consequential here, which is love,” Frey said on Sunday during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”

“This is not just about resistance here in Minneapolis. It’s about love.”

Minneapolis Mayor Frey responds to protests following the deadly ICE shooting of Renee Good. https://t.co/IKC9tIZvsR pic.twitter.com/zrGrnTEt6d

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 18, 2026

“We are standing up for one another. You’ve got neighbors helping neighbors. You’ve got people uniting and coming together in this beautiful way,” he added. “And obviously we’ve got these threats out there from the federal government that were literally designed to intimidate Minneapolis residents, to intimidate me. But here’s the thing, we’re not going to be intimidated. We’ve got this beautiful city full of extraordinary people. I have never been prouder to be from Minneapolis.”

Video from the Minneapolis riots shows just how much “love” is being spread.

Footage that appeared online on Saturday shows a man being harassed and assaulted for wearing an American flag hoodie.

One of the protesters then tells the man that if he removes his hoodie, he “won’t get hurt.”

Anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis made a man take off his American flag hoodie that said “Freedom”:

“Take it off and you won’t get hurt!” pic.twitter.com/YmueZRICnO

— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) January 17, 2026

Anti-Islam influencer Jake Lang, who was in Minneapolis on Saturday to “burn a Koran on the steps of Minneapolis city hall,” was violently attacked and beaten by a mob of anti-ICE rioters.

In multiple videos, blood can be seen on his head and neck as he’s chased and harassed.

🚨 JUST IN: Jake Lang FLEES anti-Islam protest by car in Minneapolis after violent leftists caused his head to bleed and chased him down the street

They attacked the car and tried to get inside

NOT ONE Minneapolis police officer was here.

That was on purpose. pic.twitter.com/ypn8o03sXS

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 17, 2026

A group of tech engineers were having lunch in Minneapolis when anti-ICE activists confronted them under the misapprehension that they were Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

The activists were blowing whistles and yelling “get out of our f*cking neighborhood” and “if you’re not with us, you’re against us.”

A group of white male engineers eating at Clancy’s Deli in Minneapolis were surrounded and accosted by far-left extremists who mobilized to the scene because someone thought the men were ICE agents. This follows a driver being accosted for having an SUV. pic.twitter.com/rgMEUHe1ZZ

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) January 17, 2026

The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers in Alaska to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota, the site of large protests against the government’s deportation drive, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Sunday.

The army placed the units on prepare-to-deploy orders in case violence in the midwestern state escalates, the officials said, though it is not clear whether any of them will be sent.

President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to use the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces if officials in the state do not stop protesters from targeting immigration officials after a surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

But if the troops are deployed, it is unclear whether the Trump administration would invoke the Insurrection Act. Even without invoking the act, a president can deploy active-duty forces for certain domestic purposes such as protecting federal property, which Trump cited as a justification for sending Marines to Los Angeles last year.

In addition to the active-duty forces, the Pentagon could also attempt to deploy newly created National Guard rapid-response forces for civil disturbances.

The Pentagon and the White House did not immediately respond to requests from Reuters for comment on the order, which was first reported by ABC News.

“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

The soldiers subject to deployment specialize in cold-weather operations and are assigned to two U.S. Army infantry battalions under the 11th Airborne Division, which is based in Alaska, the officials said.

Confrontations between residents and federal officers have become increasingly tense in Minneapolis, Minnesota’s most-populous city, after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good.

Trump, a Republican, has sent nearly 3,000 federal agents from ICE and Border Patrol to Minneapolis and neighboring St. Paul since early last week, as part of a wave of interventions, mostly to cities run by Democratic politicians.

He has said troop deployments in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Memphis and Portland, Oregon, are necessary to fight crime and protect federal property and personnel from protesters. But this month he said he was removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, which have faced legal setbacks and challenges.

Local leaders have accused the president of federal overreach and of exaggerating isolated episodes of violence to justify sending in troops.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, against whom the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation, has mobilized the state’s National Guard to support local law enforcement and emergency management agencies, the state Department of Public Safety posted on X on Saturday.

Trump has repeatedly invoked a scandal around the theft of federal funds intended for social-welfare programs in Minnesota as a rationale for sending in immigration agents. The president and administration officials have singled out the state’s community of Somali immigrants.

The Insurrection Act is a federal law that gives the president the power to deploy the military or federalize National Guard troops inside the U.S. to quell domestic uprisings.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart in Washington and Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue, William Mallard and Matthew Lewis)