🔗 Share this article

Greetings and welcome to the latest developments in US politics. We begin with the news that a limited contingent of National Guard troops has started protecting government facilities in the Chicago area and supporting police operations in Memphis on Wednesday, according to officials.

Troop Information

An element of 200 Texas Guard troops were working in the Chicago area, according to a representative for the US Northern Command, who spoke to the news agency on condition of anonymity in order to discuss operational details that have not been officially released.

The military personnel are in the city to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) buildings and other government properties and law enforcement personnel, Northern Command stated publicly.

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 500 troops are under the military command and have been activated for 60 days. The spokesperson wasn't able to quickly provide information 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 state governor, charging them of not protecting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.

"The city's mayor should be in prison for not protecting Ice Officers!" Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker also!"

Both the mayor and governor are members of the Democratic party. Trump's comments coincide with state military forces have begun arriving in the Chicago area at the order of the Trump administration, despite objections from state authorities, including Pritzker and Johnson.

Additional Developments

• The president 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 Gaza agreement was applauded by GOP legislators, who called on 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 deferred to his homeland security secretary. In May, Noem gave a wildly inaccurate definition of the core legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people.
• All of the witnesses who provided statements at the White House "political discussion" hosted by the administration on Wednesday were identified as freelance reporters who might more accurately described as political content creators. The content producers cover leftwing protests in a partisan fashion, more akin to opposition research than nonpartisan reporting.
• Senate Republicans voted down a war powers resolution that would have limited Trump's ability to use deadly military force against suspected drug smugglers after opposition party tried to oppose the administration's extraordinary use of the armed forces to destroy boats in the Caribbean.
• During the White House "antifa roundtable" on Wednesday, at least a participant repeated Trump's inaccurate statement that significant amounts of people have been killed by left-wing radicals in Portland, Oregon. The correct number of fatal incidents by political activists in Portland is: a single incident.