Hello and welcome to the current developments in US politics. We start with the report that a small number of National Guard troops has begun guarding federal property in the Chicago area and supporting police operations in Memphis on Wednesday, according to officials.
Troop Information
An unit of 200 Texas Guard troops were working in the Greater Chicago region, as stated by a representative for the US Northern Command, who spoke to the news agency on background basis in order to reveal mission specifics that have not been made public.
The military personnel are in the urban area to secure US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) buildings and other government properties 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 Northern Command and have been activated for 60 days. The spokesperson wasn't able to quickly provide details about how the personnel were equipped.
Political Context
It comes as Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the jailing of Brandon Johnson, Chicago's city leader, and JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor, accusing them of failing to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
"The city's mayor should be in jail for not protecting Ice Officers!" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday morning. "The state governor also!"
Both Johnson and Pritzker are members of the Democratic party. Trump's comments come as national guard troops have begun arriving in the Chicago area at the direction of the Trump administration, despite opposition from Illinois officials, including Pritzker and Johnson.
Other Updates
- Donald Trump announced that Hamas and Israel have agreed to a provisional agreement to end the fighting in Gaza, and release Israeli hostages and detained persons.
- Reports about the Middle East deal was praised by GOP legislators, who urged Trump to be given the peace award 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 Kristi Noem. In May, the secretary gave a wildly inaccurate definition of the fundamental legal concept that requires that the government provide a official justification for arresting and jailing people.
- All of the witnesses who contributed testimony at the White House "antifa roundtable" hosted by the president on Wednesday were self-described independent journalists who might better be called partisan conservative social media influencers. The influencers cover leftwing protests in a partisan fashion, more akin to opposition research than neutral journalism.
- GOP senators voted down a war powers resolution that would have limited Trump's authority to use deadly military force against alleged narcotics traffickers after opposition party 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 a participant repeated Trump's false claim that large numbers of people have been killed by left-wing radicals in Portland, Oregon. The accurate count of fatal incidents by self-described "antifa" radicals in Portland is: a single incident.
