Hello and welcome to the latest updates in American political affairs. We start with the news that a small number of state military forces has begun guarding government facilities in the Chicago area and assisting law enforcement in Memphis on Wednesday, as confirmed by authorities.
Deployment Details
An element of 200 Texas Guard troops were working in the Chicago area, according to a spokesperson for the US Northern Command, who communicated with the Associated Press on condition of anonymity in order to discuss operational details that have not been made public.
The military personnel are in the city to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) buildings and other government properties and police officers, Northern Command said online.
The troops, along with about 300 from Illinois, had arrived Tuesday at a US Army Reserve Center in Elwood, 55 miles 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 details about how the troops were armed.
Background Situation
It comes as Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded the imprisonment of Brandon Johnson, Chicago's mayor, and JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor, accusing them of not protecting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
"The city's mayor should be in prison for not protecting ICE personnel!" Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday morning. "The state governor also!"
Both Johnson and Pritzker are Democrats. Trump's remarks come as national guard troops have begun arriving in the Chicago area at the order of the Trump administration, despite opposition from state authorities, including Pritzker and Johnson.
Other Updates
- The president declared that Hamas and Israel have accepted a tentative deal to cease hostilities in Gaza, and free Israeli hostages and detained persons.
- Reports about the Gaza agreement was praised by Republican lawmakers, who called on Trump to be given the Nobel Peace prize this week, but greeted with more trepidation by Arab-American communities.
- During presidential gathering, Trump seemed unfamiliar with the term 'legal principle' and referred to his homeland security secretary. In May, Noem gave a highly incorrect explanation of the core legal principle that requires that the authorities provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people.
- All of the participants who contributed testimony at the White House "political discussion" hosted by the president on Wednesday were identified as freelance reporters who might better be called partisan conservative social media influencers. The influencers report on leftwing protests in a highly political manner, more akin to political investigation than neutral journalism.
- Senate Republicans voted down a war powers resolution that would have checked Trump's authority to use deadly military force against suspected drug smugglers after Democrats tried to counter the government's extraordinary use of the armed forces to eliminate vessels in the Caribbean.
- During the White House "antifa roundtable" on Wednesday, at least one witness echoed Trump's inaccurate statement that significant amounts of people have been killed by left-wing radicals in Portland, Oregon. The correct number of fatal incidents by political activists in Portland is: a single incident.
