What happens next will determine whether this becomes a moment of reform or retrenchment. The federal spotlight is unforgiving, but it is clarifying. It strips away rhetoric and demands evidence. For leaders used to operating on moral authority alone, that shift is destabilizing. For citizens who have watched promises go unfulfilled, it may feel long overdue.
Trump frames this as accountability, not revenge. Whether that framing holds depends on the investigations’ outcomes and how consequences are applied. One fact is already clear: the era of immunity through image is over. Minnesota is no longer insulated by reputation—it is subject to the same scrutiny as any other state, and that scrutiny appears long overdue.
