Hello and welcome to the latest updates in US politics. We start with the report that a limited contingent of National Guard troops has begun guarding federal property in the Greater Chicago region and supporting police operations in Memphis on Wednesday, according to officials.
Deployment Details
An element of two hundred Texas military personnel were working in the Chicago area, as stated by a representative for the US Northern Command, who spoke to the news agency on condition of anonymity in order to discuss mission specifics that have not been made public.
The troops are in the urban area to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) buildings and other federal facilities and police officers, 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 500 troops are under the Northern Command and have been deployed for two months. The official wasn't able to immediately offer information about how the troops were armed.
Political Context
It coincides with Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the jailing of Brandon Johnson, Chicago's city leader, and JB Pritzker, the state governor, charging them of not protecting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
"Chicago Mayor should be in prison for not protecting ICE personnel!" Trump posted on his social media platform on Wednesday morning. "The state governor also!"
Both the mayor and governor are Democrats. Trump's comments coincide with state military forces have begun arriving in the Chicago area at the order of the federal administration, despite objections from Illinois officials, including Pritzker and Johnson.
Other Updates
- Donald Trump declared that the conflicting parties have agreed to a provisional agreement to end the fighting in Gaza, and release captured individuals and Palestinian prisoners.
- Reports about the Middle East deal was praised by Republican lawmakers, who urged Trump to be awarded the peace award this week, but greeted with more trepidation by Arab-American communities.
- During White House event, Trump appeared not to recognize the term 'legal principle' and referred to his homeland security secretary. In May, Noem gave a wildly inaccurate definition of the fundamental legal concept that requires that the government provide a public reason 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 identified as freelance reporters who might better be called partisan conservative social media influencers. The content producers cover leftwing protests in a partisan fashion, more similar to political investigation than nonpartisan reporting.
- GOP senators voted down a war powers resolution that would have checked Trump's ability to use deadly military force against alleged narcotics traffickers after opposition party tried to counter the government's unprecedented deployment of the armed forces to eliminate vessels in the Caribbean Sea.
- During the White House "antifa roundtable" on Wednesday, at least a participant repeated Trump's false claim that significant amounts of people have been killed by left-wing radicals in Portland, Oregon. The correct number of killings by political activists in Portland is: one.
