Greetings and welcome to the current updates in American political affairs. We begin with the report that a small number of National Guard troops has started protecting government facilities in the Chicago area and supporting police operations in Memphis on Wednesday, as confirmed by authorities.
Troop Information
An element of 200 Texas Guard troops were operating in the Chicago area, as stated by a spokesperson for the US Northern Command, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity in order to discuss operational details that have not been officially released.
The troops are in the city to secure US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities and other federal facilities and law enforcement personnel, Northern Command said online.
The troops, along with about three hundred Illinois personnel, 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 activated for two months. The official wasn't able to immediately offer details about how the personnel were equipped.
Background Situation
It comes as Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded the jailing 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 not protecting Ice Officers!" Trump posted on his social media platform on Wednesday morning. "The state governor also!"
Both the mayor and governor are Democrats. Trump's comments come as state military forces have begun arriving in the Greater Chicago region at the order of the federal administration, despite objections from state authorities, including Pritzker and Johnson.
Other Updates
- Donald Trump announced that Hamas and Israel have accepted a tentative deal to end the fighting in Gaza, and free Israeli hostages and detained persons.
- Reports about the Middle East deal was praised by Republican lawmakers, who urged Trump to be awarded the Nobel Peace prize this week, but greeted with more trepidation by Palestinian Americans.
- During presidential gathering, Trump seemed unfamiliar with the term 'legal principle' and deferred to Kristi Noem. In May, the secretary gave a highly incorrect definition of the core legal principle that mandates that the government provide a official justification for arresting and jailing people.
- All of the participants who contributed testimony at the White House "political discussion" 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 similar to opposition research than neutral journalism.
- GOP senators voted down a war powers resolution that would have limited Trump's ability to use deadly military force against suspected drug smugglers after Democrats tried to counter the government's unprecedented deployment of the armed forces to destroy boats in the Caribbean.
- During the White House "antifa roundtable" on Wednesday, at least one witness echoed Trump's false claim that large numbers of people have been murdered by left-wing radicals in the Oregon city. The correct number of killings by political activists in Portland is: a single incident.
