Greetings and welcome to the current developments in US politics. We begin with the report that a limited contingent of state military forces has started protecting federal property in the Chicago area and assisting law enforcement in Memphis on Wednesday, as confirmed by authorities.
Troop Information
An unit of two hundred Texas military personnel were working in the Greater Chicago region, according to a representative for the US Northern Command, who communicated with the news agency on condition of anonymity in order to reveal mission specifics that have not been made public.
The military personnel are in the city to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities and other government properties and police officers, Northern Command said online.
The forces, along with about 300 from Illinois, had arrived 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 deployed for two months. The spokesperson wasn't able to quickly provide details about how the personnel were equipped.
Political Context
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.
"Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers!" Trump wrote on Truth Social 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 begun arriving in the Chicago area at the direction of the federal administration, despite objections from state authorities, including the governor and mayor.
Other Updates
- The president declared that Hamas and Israel have accepted a provisional agreement to end the fighting in Gaza, and release Israeli hostages and detained persons.
- News of the Gaza agreement was applauded 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 'Habeas Corpus' and deferred to Kristi Noem. In May, Noem gave a wildly inaccurate explanation of the fundamental legal concept that requires that the government provide a official justification for arresting and jailing 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 better be called political content creators. The influencers report on leftwing protests in a partisan fashion, more akin to opposition research than neutral journalism.
- Senate Republicans rejected a war powers resolution that would have checked Trump's authority to use deadly military force against alleged narcotics traffickers after Democrats tried to counter the administration's unprecedented deployment of the military to destroy boats 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 political extremists in Portland, Oregon. The accurate count of fatal incidents by political activists in Portland is: a single incident.
