Hello and welcome to the latest developments in US politics. We start with the news that a limited contingent of state military forces has begun guarding federal property in the Greater Chicago region and supporting police operations in Memphis on Wednesday, as confirmed by authorities.
Deployment Details
An unit of two hundred Texas military personnel were working in the Chicago area, according to a representative for the US Northern Command, who spoke to the news agency on background basis in order to reveal operational details that have not been made public.
The military personnel are in the city to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities and other federal facilities and law enforcement personnel, Northern Command stated publicly.
The troops, along with about 300 from Illinois, had reached on Tuesday at a US Army Reserve Center in Elwood, 55 miles southwest of Chicago. All five hundred personnel are under the military command and have been activated for 60 days. The official wasn't able to quickly provide information about how the troops were armed.
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) officers.
"The city's mayor should be in jail for not protecting ICE personnel!" Trump wrote on his social media platform on Wednesday morning. "The state governor also!"
Both the mayor and governor are members of the Democratic party. Trump's comments coincide with national guard troops have started deployment in the Chicago area at the order of the Trump administration, despite objections from state authorities, including Pritzker and Johnson.
Other Updates
- The president declared that Hamas and Israel have agreed to a tentative deal to cease hostilities in Gaza, and release captured individuals and detained persons.
- Reports about the Gaza agreement was praised by Republican lawmakers, who urged Trump to be awarded the Nobel Peace prize this week, but greeted with more trepidation by Arab-American communities.
- During presidential gathering, Trump appeared not to recognize the term 'Habeas Corpus' and deferred to Kristi Noem. In May, Noem gave a highly incorrect definition of the fundamental legal concept that mandates that the authorities provide a official justification for arresting and jailing people.
- All of the witnesses who provided statements at the White House "political discussion" organized by the president on Wednesday were self-described independent journalists who might more accurately described as partisan conservative social media influencers. The content producers report on leftwing protests in a highly political manner, more similar to political investigation than neutral journalism.
- GOP senators voted down a military authorization measure that would have checked Trump's authority to use lethal armed action against alleged narcotics traffickers after Democrats tried to oppose the administration's extraordinary use of the armed forces to eliminate vessels in the Caribbean Sea.
- During the White House "antifa roundtable" on Wednesday, at least one witness repeated Trump's false claim that significant amounts of people have been murdered by political extremists in Portland, Oregon. The correct number of killings by political activists in Portland is: one.
