Hello and welcome to the current developments in US politics. We start with the report that a small number of state military forces has started protecting government facilities in the Chicago area and assisting law enforcement in Memphis on Wednesday, according to officials.
Troop Information
An element of 200 Texas Guard troops were operating in the Chicago area, according to a representative for the US Northern Command, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity in order to reveal operational details that have not been made public.
The military personnel are in the urban area to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities and other government properties and law enforcement personnel, Northern Command stated publicly.
The forces, along with about three hundred Illinois personnel, had reached on Tuesday at a US Army Reserve Center in Elwood, approximately 90 kilometers southwest of Chicago. All 500 troops are under the military command and have been deployed for two months. The official wasn't able to quickly provide information about how the personnel were equipped.
Political Context
It comes as Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the imprisonment of Brandon Johnson, Chicago's city leader, and JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor, charging them of not protecting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
"The city's mayor should be in jail for not protecting Ice Officers!" Trump wrote on his social media platform on Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker also!"
Both the mayor and governor are Democrats. Trump's remarks coincide with state military forces have started deployment in the Chicago area at the order of the federal administration, despite opposition from Illinois officials, including Pritzker and Johnson.
Other Updates
- The president announced that the conflicting parties have accepted a tentative deal to cease hostilities in Gaza, and release Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
- News of the Middle East deal was praised by GOP legislators, who urged Trump to be given the peace award this week, but received with greater caution by Palestinian Americans.
- During White House event, Trump seemed unfamiliar with the term 'Habeas Corpus' and referred to his homeland security secretary. In May, Noem gave a wildly inaccurate definition of the fundamental legal concept that mandates that the government provide a official justification for detaining and imprisoning people.
- All of the witnesses who provided statements at the White House "political discussion" organized by the president on Wednesday were identified as freelance reporters who might better be called political content creators. The content producers cover leftwing protests in a partisan fashion, more akin to opposition research than nonpartisan reporting.
- GOP senators voted down a military authorization measure that would have limited Trump's ability to use lethal armed action against suspected drug smugglers after opposition party tried to oppose the administration's extraordinary use of the military to eliminate vessels in the Caribbean.
- During the White House "antifa roundtable" on Wednesday, at least a participant repeated Trump's inaccurate statement that significant amounts of people have been murdered by left-wing radicals in the Oregon city. The correct number of fatal incidents by political activists in Portland is: one.
