How to connect a USB2 device to Mac mini thunder bolt port

Just plug it into one of the USB-A ports. No adapter is needed.

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I wrote a thing: What is USB? - Apple Community

In this case, a USB-A connector can get plugged directly into a USB-A port on the Mac, if your Mac mini has USB-A ports.

If ypur Mac mini is USB-C only and no USB-A, use the Apple USB-C to USB-A adapter.

(Details, adapters, images, etc., in the user tip.)

It sounds like you have a Mac mini with a M2 Pro chip. Those are the only ones that have exactly four Thunderbolt ports and two USB-A ports, and that can run macOS 26 (Tahoe). (Intel Mac minis can't run Tahoe, and other Apple Silicon Mac minis have different port assortments.)

The USB-A ports on that Mac are single-purpose ports that support USB 3.0 ("up to 5 Gbps").

The USB-C ports are multi-purpose ports that support USB 3.1 Gen 2 ("up to 10 Gbps"), as well as USB4 20 Gbps and 40 Gbps, DisplayPort, and Thunderbolt 4. There are multiple ways to go between USB-C and USB-A for USB protocol, at USB 3.1 Gen 2 speeds or less. So with the right adapter, cable, hub, or dock, you could plug USB 2.0 / USB-A devices in there. However, for USB 2.0 devices, you may want to "use up" your less valuable USB-A ports before tying up the faster, multi-purpose USB-C ones.

You can find many places online and in retail stores selling converters from pretty much any connection to every other connection. The thing to avoid is stringing them together.

What I did with mine is I have an older USB2 hub with several USB-A ports. I then use a single connector to connect all my USB-A devices (mostly low demand ones such as my keyboard and mouse) to a single USB-C port on my Mini. My hub is powered so I could, if I wished to, attach an unpowered storage drive to it.