MINNEAPOLIS -- Mayor Jacob Frey has earned glowing attention in the national media since the federal immigration surge, with talk show appearances and magazine mentions and even a hint of presidential buzz. Meanwhile, back home, you can buy a T-shirt that says "Frey is a bad mayor."
There's no doubt the 12-week Operation Metro Surge buffed Frey's image outside of Minneapolis. He popped up on cable TV news frequently, did interviews with The New York Times, went on Kara Swisher's podcast, appeared on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," and received a standing ovation at the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
When he spoke at a star-studded "State of the Swamp" event to counter President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech, a Washington Post reporter wrote that a "well-connected Democrat" suggested Frey was soft-launching a presidential campaign.
Frey has his fans in Minneapolis, too; he was comfortably reelected to a third term in November, and statewide, Minnesotans view him favorably, according to a Star Tribune poll earlier this year. But he remains a divisive figure, especially among progressives in heavily Democratic Minneapolis.
Progressives, including those who now control City Council, differ with Frey on a number of policy issues, including the pace of police reform, rent control, and how to address homeless encampments. The council recently refused to sign off on Frey's reappointment of his public safety commissioner, the first time in the city's history that the council rejected a cabinet pick by the mayor.
The reaction to Operation Metro Surge offered the most high-profile example of the divide: Time magazine lauded Frey for leading the city through the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in Minneapolis when thousands of federal agents descended upon the city and state.
"From a walnut conference table in city hall, he directed the unprecedented logistical response," Time wrote. "His careful demeanor gave way at times to raw frustration," the write-up continued, before recalling Frey's now-famous "Get the f--k out of Minneapolis," directed at ICE in January after Renee Good was fatally shot.
But some Minneapolis progressives say Frey spent too much time talking to national media and not enough getting down in the trenches with protesters.
Council member Jason Chavez -- whose two uncles were deported during the surge -- has been particularly critical of Frey. "It's very easy to cuss at ICE; it's actually harder to do policy work to help people stay in our city," Chavez said.
Council member Robin Wonsley said the mayor should "actually be a leader" and "do more than give grandiose speeches." She said Frey's leadership is often defined by "political showmanship over substance."
Wonsley said Frey benefits from a "media environment where his administration can drive the story, even taking credit for City Council-led work."
Frey said he attended several protests and went to the scene after Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent, but he felt the most important thing he could do was speak for the city and try to get ICE out of town.
"It was strategic to go on Fox [News]," he said in a recent interview.
Progressives' issues with Frey go beyond policy differences. Some just dislike him and cringe at his leadership style. Council progressives say Frey doesn't work with them and doesn't implement some of the measures the council passes. Others say he's inordinately focused on his public image over getting the work done.
The frustration with Frey can sometimes come out in highly personal attacks: In 2024, activists opposing the Frey administration's homeless encampment sweeps erected a cutout drawing of Frey, who is Jewish, sporting a Hitler-like mustache in the backdrop of their news conference.
Recently, Frey's looks, clothes and dance moves were ridiculed during a "Performative Mayor Contest" where people lined up to beat a Frey piñata and mock the mayor as part of a fundraiser to help people pay their rent post-ICE. One contestant told Minnesota Public Radio the contest was, "like, the most wholesome way you can really hate someone."
In addition to the shirts that say "Frey is a bad mayor," you can buy hats that say "All my homies hate Jacob Frey" and stickers that turn Frey's famous expletive directed at ICE back on him. People testifying at City Hall sometimes wear T-shirts emblazoned with the words: "Jacob Frey is a bad person and worse mayor."
Frey dismisses much of the criticism as coming from an "online group of critics who are oppositional to quite literally anything I do, and will sometimes go as far as targeting my family."
Now eight years into the job, Frey said he knows exactly where he stands in Minneapolis.
"In this job, you don't move things forward without taking some hits. If standing by my values brings criticism, that's part of it," he said.
Council member Linea Palmisano -- a more moderate Democrat and Frey ally -- said some people simply have "Jacob Frey derangement syndrome."
She thinks the vitriol is a symptom of the deterioration of political discourse nationally, with elected officials focused on wins and losses rather than working together.
Many council members are activists who are unwilling to compromise, making proposals they know Frey will veto, she said.
"Many have decided the villain is the mayor," Palmisano said. "They're always looking for the fault line."
Palmisano noted that Council member Aisha Chughtai directed the same expletive at Frey, fascism and Trump at a public concert, but Frey doesn't bad-mouth council members in public. If someone had beaten a piñata of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, "people would not be OK with it," Palmisano said.
"The idea that beating an effigy of Jacob Frey's head is OK around here is so dysfunctional to me," she said. "It makes me so sad and upset that this is what we're doing to our own kind, so to speak."