Fact-checking Trump's claim that anti-ICE protesters are 'paid agitators and insurrectionists'

With throngs of people in Minnesota protesting the Trump administration's immigration enforcement surge, President Donald Trump and some of his allies repeatedly described the protesters as paid.

"The thugs that are protesting include many highly paid professional agitators and anarchists," he said Jan. 18 on Truth Social.

"They're paid agitators and insurrectionists," Trump said at a Jan. 20 press conference.

The next day in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said the "fake" protests were "done by agitators and professional insurrectionists. … They're professional troublemakers."