A newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch has issued a stern warning to President Donald Trump following a high-profile Republican defeat.
The Wall Street Journal warned Trump in a new editorial that the hard-line immigration strategy pursued by top aide Stephen Miller is fueling a voter backlash.
The move comes after a Trump-backed Texas Senate candidate lost to Democrats over the weekend.
“How could a Republican lose by 14 points in a safe, conservative Texas Senate seat that President Trump won by 17 points in 2024? The answer: When voters generated a backlash against the Trump administration, particularly its mass deportation failures,” the Journal wrote in describing Tarrant County’s special election.
Union leader and Army veteran Taylor Rehmet, a Democrat, easily defeated Republican Leigh Wambsganss, who was endorsed by Trump on Truth Social and far outspent her opponent.
Rayment is the first Democrat to win the seat in decades.
The newspaper noted that the timing was devastating for Republicans in the wake of high-profile killings by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. “The 31-point vote swing over more than 14 months can only be explained as part of a growing wave of opposition to Trump’s first year and poor public sentiment,” the Wall Street Journal commented.
A peaceful protest took place on Olvera Street in Los Angeles on Saturday night in support of a 37-year-old man shot and killed by immigration officers in Minneapolis, with signs in support of Renee Goode and Alex Pretty held up during a candlelight vigil. / Gina Ferrazzi/ Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag
The White House is facing growing backlash across the country after federal immigration agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis — Renee Good in early January and Alex Pretti later that month — as part of an aggressive enforcement campaign in the state.
Both cases have sparked controversy with conflicting official accounts. In Pretty’s case, DHS officials and White House aides initially claimed he approached agents with a gun and posed a threat, while bystander video showed he was holding only a cellphone before being pinned down and shot.
Likewise, authorities initially suggested that Goode tried to ram agents with her vehicle before she was shot, an account that was contradicted by eyewitness footage and reports. Critics argued that these early statements painted the two victims as dangerous, justified the shootings and heightened accusations that the government was distorting the events.
The killing came after Trump deployed thousands of federal immigration agents to Minneapolis as part of an aggressive immigration strategy masterminded by Mueller.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller (right) and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrive for the wedding of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino and Erin Elmore. /Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Miller’s immigration strategy under Trump has driven aggressive mass arrests and deportations, with ICE agents forced to fulfill high daily quotas and target even noncriminal undocumented immigrants.
The Wall Street Journal criticized Mueller’s hard-line tactics, including a quota of 3,000 immigrant arrests per day, which it said “will inevitably lead to agents invading homes and businesses.”
While immigration has historically been a winning issue for Republicans, the Wall Street Journal warned that enforcement “has turned ugly on the streets and is turning off swing voters who will decide who wins this year’s congressional races.”
Recent polls show Americans are turning against Trump and his immigration strategy ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. A YouGov poll conducted on January 25 showed that about half (48%) of respondents believed that Pretty’s shooting in Minneapolis was unjustified.
Another YouGov poll showed that 52% of Americans think the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict immigration to the United States go too far.
As a result, the newspaper concluded, Trump must reconsider Mueller’s influence even as he expresses a desire to “reduce confrontations on the streets.” “Miller’s strategy is unlikely to fare better this year,” the editorial warned.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (R) talks to media mogul Rupert Murdoch as he walks out of the Trump International Golf Course in Aberdeen, Scotland, June 25, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri / Carlo Allegri / REUTERS
The Wall Street Journal is not the first Murdoch-owned newspaper to publicly condemn Trump’s immigration tactics.
The New York Post argued in an op-ed last week that the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement in Minneapolis was politically counterproductive.
“Rather than turning the tide, these enforcement tactics are counterproductive,” the Washington Post wrote.
