‘We have an intolerable threat’: Trump’s new ‘stunt’ blasted as ‘cruel intimidation’
Leaders at the ACLU on Tuesday joined other rights advocates and elected Democrats in condemning US President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard to Memphis with a Monday order he signed beside Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
“When military troops police civilians, we have an intolerable threat to individual liberty and the foundational values of this country,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, in a statement.
“President Trump may want to normalize armed forces in our cities, but no matter what uniform they wear, federal agents and military troops are bound by the Constitution and have to respect our rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of speech, and due process,” Shamsi continued. “State and local leaders must stay strong and take all lawful measures to protect residents against this cruel intimidation tactic.”
While Lee expressed his gratitude to Trump for the order, some other elected officials in Tennessee have spoken out since Trump previewed his plans for Memphis on “Fox & Friends” last Friday.
The Associated Press reported on local opposition Monday:
“I did not ask for the National Guard, and I don’t think it’s the way to drive down crime,” Memphis Mayor Paul Young told a news conference Friday while acknowledging the city remained high on too many “bad lists.”
Young has also said that now the decision is made, he wants to ensure he can help influence the Guard’s role. He mentioned possibilities such as traffic control for big events, monitoring cameras for police and undertaking beautification projects.
At a news conference Monday, some local Democrats urged officials to consider options to oppose the deployment. Tami Sawyer, Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk, said the city or county could sue.
State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-86), whose district includes parts of the city, declared, “We need poverty eradication, not military occupation!”
Denouncing Trump’s targeting of Memphis on MSNBC, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) said that “having the National Guard here is unnecessary and it is a stunt. It’s just a Trump show, to show his power and his force.”
“I think this may be the first representation of his changing the Department of Defense to the Department of War, because he likes to put the National Guard at his direction, as his being the great warrior, into cities and going to war,” he added.
According to a White House fact sheet, Trump’s memorandum tasks Secretary of War Pete Hegseth with requesting Lee “make Tennessee National Guard units available to support public safety and law enforcement operations in Memphis,” and further directs Hegseth to “coordinate with state governors to mobilize National Guard personnel from those states to support this effort.”
The order also “establishes a Memphis Safe Task Force tasked with ending street and violent crime in Memphis to the greatest possible extent, including by coordinating closely with state and local officials in Tennessee, Memphis, and neighboring jurisdictions to share information, develop joint priorities, and maximize resources to make Memphis safe and restore public order.”
Trump has already deployed the National Guard to Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, California, and threatened to do so in Chicago, Illinois, where his deadly “Operation Midway Blitz” targeting immigrants is already underway.
“Expanding military involvement into US civilian law enforcement is dangerous and unwarranted,” Tanya Greene, US program director at Human Rights Watch, said Tuesday. “The Trump administration’s continued deployment of military forces in cities with populations primarily comprised of people of color, like Memphis, risks exacerbating violence against immigrants, unhoused people, and poor people in general.”
“While communities desperately need food, affordable housing, and healthcare,” she added, “hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are being squandered on these deployments.”
‘Sick, twisted and tragic’: MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace unleashes on Kash Patel
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace unleashed on FBI Director Kash Patel for what she called a "sick, twisted and cruel" way of destroying the FBI.
On Tuesday, Wallace welcomed New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush, who exposed the FBI for going after an agent who was blamed for being part of an investigation he had nothing to do with. Another was shoved out at a time his wife was facing cancer and having an adverse reaction to chemotherapy.
Last week, three fired FBI agents filed a lawsuit against the FBI and Kash Patel. On Tuesday, two more are seeking solutions to fight back against their firing.
Chris Meyer and Walter Giardina, both decorated combat veterans with years of service in the FBI, are now also suing after their firing, too. These agents were likely the two that the previous three supervisors mentioned fighting for in the previous lawsuit, Thrush said.
"Last month, Mr. Patel summarily fired Mr. Meyer and another top agent in the Washington, D.C., field office who had been targeted by the right, Walter Giardina," the report said. "Mr. Patel did so after being told that the terminations were unlawful and that pushing out Mr. Giardina, who was caring for his dying wife, would be 'inexcusably cruel,' according to a lawsuit filed by three F.B.I. supervisors also dismissed by Mr. Patel."
"There's a special provision in the law that allows FBI agents who are veterans to have due process, whereas if they had not been veterans, they could be fired without cause," said Thrush.
They requested due process as part of an official investigation before they were fired, but they were denied it.
"You know, these were not folks who were aspiring in the political arena or wanted to make a lot of money or wanted to even trade in these jobs for more lucrative private sector gigs. They wanted to spend their entire career in the bureau," Thrush said.
Thrush noted that Walter Giardina was a midshipman who graduated from the Naval Academy.
"One of the phenomena of Trump's two terms, and he's done it a lot more quickly in a second term because of the purge that he ordered, is to run out of the FBI, the very human beings that could most likely make him a successful president," said Wallace.
She pointed out the exchange between Patel and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) in which the senator asks about key people being taken off of jobs involving terrorism and trafficking to deal with deportations. Patel claimed he cared about those issues, but those experts working on the cases are the ones being shoved out.
"And there's something so cynically tragic about depriving the FBI — like the people in charge of stopping and catching the people that trafficked children and women and international drug cartels. I mean, to take the people who would wear capes if it didn't give them away and run them out of the agency for which he could get the most credit for doing a good job and the things he says he cares about is so sick and twisted and tragic," said Wallace.
MAGA melts down as House Dem refuses to apologize for scathing Charlie Kirk remarks
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) refuses to back down from her criticism of the slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk — and MAGA personalities have responded with fury.
After Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA who was renowned for youth engagement and a number of controversial positions about race, religious freedom, and civil rights, was assassinated during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Omar criticized the media rush to whitewash his beliefs, saying on Zeteo News, "There is nothing more f----- up to completely pretend his words and actions have not been recorded and in existence for the last decade or so." She also reposted a comment calling Kirk a "stochastic terrorist."
The right-wing activist rage over Omar was further amplified after she was confronted by far-right Trump confidante Laura Loomer and an associate, ignoring their demands for an apology.
"Moments ago, @IlhanMN fled into her office after @LoomerUnleashed and @TheCharlesDowns asked her if she would apologize for resharing a video calling Charlie Kirk a 'terrorist' following his assassination by a radical leftist," Loomer posted on X. "Omar’s refusal to apologize for embracing political violence is a clear sign that she MUST be removed from her Congressional committees, and MUST be CENSURED immediately."
Many of the commenters cheered on the new push by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) to censure Omar and strip her of committee assignments.
"Rep. Nancy Mace introduces a resolution on the House floor to remove Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar from all of her Committee Assignments. This must pass!" wrote bodybuilder and MAGA commentator Ian Jaeger.
"Nancy Mace just officially filed a Resolution that will REMOVE Ilhan Omar from her committee assignments and censure her! EVERY LAST GOP REP. NEEDS TO BE ON BOARD!" wrote Texas-based MAGA activist "Gunther Eagleman."
"Ilhan Omar is officially in DANGER of being kicked off her committees and CENSURED for justifying Charlie Kirk's assassination," wrote right-wing internet personality Nick Sortor. "Rep. Nancy Mace just filed filed the resolution to make it happen. ALL REPUBLICANS SHOULD SUPPORT THIS! Somali Rep. Omar has ZERO BUSINESS having power over our country."
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‘There’s a literal civil war’: GOP candidate pushes Trump to use Insurrection Act
Don Brown, a North Carolina Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, argued that President Donald Trump should use the Insurrection Act to fight what he said was "literal civil war on the streets."
During a Monday interview on Real America's Voice, host Jake Novak asked Brown about Trump's decision to deploy National Guard troops in Portland.
"I just feel like we're in a civil war here in America," Novak said. "I wish, I mean, I'm not trying to be hysterical here, but I don't know what else to call it. It's becoming kinetic. People are dying, literally. I wonder if you're as alarmed as I am?"
"You've nailed it on the head," Brown agreed. "There is a literal civil war on the streets."
The candidate argued that Trump had a duty to "ensure domestic tranquility."
"The President of the United States has the authority to send in the National Guard to these cities where domestic tranquility and rampant crime have taken over, with or without the request from the local authorities," he said. "You look into the Insurrection Act. And when Americans' constitutional rights and liberties are being threatened, the president can go ahead and send in troops."
"The president has the authority to do it. And these local leaders who are soft on crime and pro-crime and just want to kiss up to antifa and all these communist left-wing groups that are intent on unraveling civil society, they're not relevant," he added. "So I'm going to encourage the president to do what he needs to do."
A lawsuit filed by Oregon and the city of Portland asserted that Trump did not have the authority to deploy National Guard troops in response to "small" protests near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
"There is no insurrection or threat to public safety that necessitates military intervention in Portland or any other city in our state," Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D) said in a statement.
Trump announces major tariff in effort to make crucial swing state ‘great again’
President Donald Trump announced Monday that he will be imposing “substantial” tariffs on any country that does not purchase American-made furniture, presumably in addition to his sweeping so-called “reciprocal tariffs” already placed on hundreds of nations.
“In order to make North Carolina, which has completely lost its furniture business to China, and other Countries, GREAT again, I will be imposing substantial Tariffs on any Country that does not make its furniture in the United States,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “Details to follow!!! President DJT”
The North Carolinian furniture industry has indeed suffered significant losses due in large part to China, which has increased its exports of cheap furniture to the United States. Between 1999 and 2009, the furniture manufacturing industry in North Carolina lost more than half of its jobs, one of the many sectors that suffered following the adoption of the NAFTA trade agreements.
Whether Trump’s pledge would boost domestic furniture manufacturing remains to be seen, though the pledge comes just shortly after the president declared war on foreign films in a similar online post in which he announced he would be imposing a 100% tariff on all foreign films.