Rocker Dave Matthews sharply criticized President Donald Trump and senior members of his administration on Friday following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Minnesota, using a series of forceful statements posted online. Matthews, the frontman of the Dave Matthews Band, released a video message on his birthday in which he objected to federal immigration enforcement and described the shooting in unequivocal terms. “I don’t want my taxes to pay for ICE, to masked thugs to roam our streets and terrorize our communities and rip families apart,” Matthews said in the video. He added, “We should be taking care of each other. We should be minding each other. We should be housing the homeless. We shouldn’t be, you know, throwing people to the ground.”
In the same video, Matthews referenced broader U.S. foreign and domestic policy actions, including the military operation in Venezuela that resulted in the capture of President Nicolas Maduro, warnings directed at other governments, expanded involvement in the war in Gaza, and ICE enforcement operations within the United States. Turning back to the Minnesota incident, Matthews said, “Which brings me to Renee Nicole Good, murdered in front of her fellow citizens in Minneapolis, murdered in the streets, and no matter what narrative this administration is trying to sell us, we can see the videos.” He rejected the administration’s assertion that ICE agents acted in self-defense, stating that Good was “murdered in cold blood.”
Matthews continued by expressing personal distress over the incident and the government’s response. “It’s mind-boggling, and it’s deeply upsetting to me and to so many people, and we can’t just let it slide,” he said. He went on to name several administration officials directly, saying, “To Trump, to Kristi Noem, to Stephen Miller, to Pete Hegseth, to [Kash] Patel to [Pam] Bondi to all of them, just deeply, deeply dishonest people. Just cowardly, shameful, dishonest people,” before adding, “Fuck them. They are revolting.” He further stated that he is “deeply ashamed of this government, the way they’re treating our neighbors, outside and inside this country,” and concluded with, “Fuck ICE. Yeah. If that language offends you … Come on. We all heard it before. I hope you know where my heart is. I don’t like these monsters that are running the show right now. They are ungrateful, greedy monsters. I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.”
The comments followed public controversy surrounding the death of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman who was killed after allegedly using her vehicle to interfere with an ICE operation. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the agent involved discharged his weapon after determining that Good’s actions posed an immediate threat to federal officers. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem defended the agent’s actions, stating that Good used her vehicle as a weapon and characterizing the incident as an act of “domestic terrorism.” Noem also said the case falls under federal jurisdiction, disputing claims that state or local authorities should lead the investigation. A DHS spokesperson later disclosed that ICE officers have experienced a sharp rise in assaults, reporting a 1,300 percent increase in attacks against agents in recent years, a statistic officials cite when discussing the risks faced by federal law enforcement personnel during immigration operations.
