Greetings and welcome to the current developments in American political affairs. We start with the report that a small number of National Guard troops has started protecting government facilities in the Chicago area and assisting law enforcement in Memphis on Wednesday, according to officials.
Deployment Details
An unit of 200 Texas Guard troops were operating in the Greater Chicago region, according to a spokesperson for the US Northern Command, who communicated with the Associated Press on background basis in order to discuss operational details that have not been officially released.
The troops 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 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 activated for two months. The official wasn't able to quickly provide information about how the personnel were equipped.
Background Situation
It comes as Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded the imprisonment of Brandon Johnson, Chicago's mayor, and JB Pritzker, the state governor, charging them of failing to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
"Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect ICE personnel!" Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker also!"
Both the mayor and governor are Democrats. Trump's comments coincide with national guard troops have begun arriving in the Chicago area at the order of the Trump administration, despite opposition from Illinois officials, including Pritzker and Johnson.
Other Updates
- Donald Trump declared that the conflicting parties have accepted a provisional agreement to end the fighting in Gaza, and release Israeli hostages and detained persons.
- Reports about the Gaza agreement was applauded by Republican lawmakers, who urged Trump to be given the peace award 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 his homeland security secretary. In May, Noem gave a wildly inaccurate explanation of the core legal principle that mandates that the government provide a official justification for detaining and imprisoning people.
- All of the participants who provided statements at the White House "political discussion" hosted by the president on Wednesday were self-described independent journalists who might more accurately described as political content creators. The influencers cover leftwing protests in a partisan fashion, more akin to political investigation than nonpartisan reporting.
- Senate Republicans voted down a military authorization measure that would have checked Trump's ability to use lethal armed action against alleged narcotics traffickers after opposition party tried to oppose the administration's extraordinary use of the military to eliminate vessels in the Caribbean.
- During the White House "political discussion" on Wednesday, at least one witness repeated Trump's false claim that significant amounts of people have been killed by political extremists in Portland, Oregon. The correct number of killings by self-described "antifa" radicals in Portland is: one.
