Jesse Ventura Says the Quiet Part Loud: ‘We’re a Third World Country Now’

The former Minnesota governor blasts warrantless enforcement, warns of authoritarian creep, and says the Constitution didn’t survive January 6. And he's not wrong.

Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura tore into federal immigration enforcement, January 6 accountability, and what he called the collapse of constitutional law after a fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis.

Ventura appeared outside Minneapolis’ Roosevelt High School—his alma mater—to support students and staff who blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement from operating on campus. He praised the school for standing up for civil liberties, saying schools exist to teach the Constitution, not to host warrantless arrests.

Ventura accused federal authorities of violating basic constitutional principles, arguing that arrests without warrants represent a breakdown of the rule of law. He repeatedly returned to January 6 as a defining moment, saying that those responsible were ultimately freed and rewarded with political power—proof, in his view, that accountability has vanished.

The former Navy SEAL and Vietnam veteran escalated his rhetoric by calling the United States a “third world country,” pointing to the use of militarized forces for domestic policing. Drawing from his time in Southeast Asia, Ventura compared current conditions to authoritarian regimes where soldiers patrol city streets—warning that this is how dictatorships begin.

Ventura also invoked historical parallels, urging Americans to study 1930s Germany and recognize familiar tactics. He condemned federal intervention in Minnesota without warrants, supported Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey for opposing it, and dismissed both major political parties as corrupt, self-serving institutions that have “wrecked” the country.

Source: YouTube

Editor: Ventura isn’t whispering—he’s yelling what a lot of Americans feel but rarely hear on cable TV. When a former governor is openly comparing federal law enforcement tactics to martial law, the real story isn’t his tone—it’s why that comparison no longer sounds unthinkable.