It’s stuff the genie back in the bottle time in Trumpolandia.

“Chief Gregory Bovino has NOT been relieved of his duties,” the DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, pointing to earlier comments from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, praising Bovino as a “key part of the president’s team and a great American”.

Leavitt spent Monday’s press briefing walking back initial claims made by senior administration officials about Pretti. Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff, called the victim “a domestic terrorist who tried to assassinate law enforcement”, and Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, accused him of perpetrating “the definition of domestic terrorism” – characterizations that have been undercut by video footage that showed Pretti getting shot in the back multiple times after being tackled to the ground by a group of US border patrol agents whom he had been filming, and disarmed of his gun.

Or to put it more bluntly, Miller and Noem told the usual blistering lies about the guy their team murdered and this time it didn’t work.

Trump himself on Monday said he had a “a very good call” with Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, who[m] he had previously blamed for Pretti’s death.

Yes oddly enough it just doesn’t look good to murder a dedicated ICU nurse and then tell a pack of lies about him.