‘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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Trump’s Air Force One ruse revealed war’s end is ‘further away than ever’: analyst
President Donald Trump's use of a decoy plane in Turkey and escape via a catering truck, with journalists none the wiser, was detailed in a new analysis for Slate by Ian Prasad Philbrick.
The plan, intended to avert an assassination threat, was basically "something out of a spy movie," Philbrick wrote.
"The catering truck, which typically loads in-flight meals, parked on the right side of Air Force One, partially shielded from media cameras," he wrote. As part of the ruse, Trump "crossed to the other side of the presidential plane after boarding and stepped into the truck’s elevated container," after which the catering truck lowered the container, drove to a military jet, and offloaded its human cargo to be routed home through the United Kingdom — without journalists or even some White House officials any the wiser.
One of the most shocking aspects of the whole affair, wrote Philbrick, is that the Trump administration was essentially using all the journalists who thought they were flying with the president "as bait" for any would-be assassination plot without letting them know.
Furthermore, he noted, after the flight, "asked why reporters had had to close their window shades when leaving Turkey, Trump failed to mention that he had switched flights. 'I’m No. 1 on their list,' he said, referring to Iran. 'But if I go, you go. Right?' As it turns out, maybe not."
Decoy flights are not completely unheard of for the president, Philbrick wrote — but it's still extremely uncommon.
"Officials were vague about George W. Bush’s whereabouts immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, and Bill Clinton took an unmarked plane from India to Pakistan in 2000," wrote Philbrick. However, in these cases, "even Bush had reporters with him, and Clinton’s staff told at least one journalist about the switch beforehand."
Philbrick also took the ruse as a sign that Trump's war against Iran is not going well.
"In short, lasting peace seems further away than ever," he wrote.
