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SEN TAMMY DUCKWORTH: Trump’s domestic troop deployments betray our military and nation
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One of the proudest moments of my life was the first time I ever laced up my boots, put on my uniform and raised my right hand to swear my oath to the Constitution as a member of the Illinois Army National Guard.
I cherished every day that I got to wake up and call myself a United States soldier. And it is precisely because I love our military so deeply that I refuse to let a five-time draft-dodging coward abuse it for his own gain and to our country’s detriment.
At Quantico last week, President Donald Trump —the same man who insists on rebranding the Pentagon as the “Department of War”— told top military leaders that he wants to use American cities as “training grounds” for our troops.
TEXAS NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYS 200 TROOPS TO ILLINOIS FOR FEDERAL PROTECTION MISSION AMID PROTESTS
Let that sink in: the commander in chief wants members of the Department of War to “train” against the same citizens they swear an oath to protect. Last month, he announced Chicago would “find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.” And this week, he’s making good on his threats: Trump has now forced hundreds of National Guardsmen into Chicago.
Members of the Texas National Guard assemble in Elwood, Illinois, at the Army Reserve Training Center in the southwest suburb of Chicago, on Oct. 7. 2025.
(Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
For months, Trump has fabricated claims of chaos and crime on American streets to justify false claims that there is a “need” to deploy troops into our cities against local officials’ wishes. First to Los Angeles, then Washington, D.C. — and he isn’t stopping there, he’s also attempting to deploy troops to Portland. Over the weekend, however, a federal judge that Trump appointed blocked his efforts to deploy troops there — twice — because, in his own handpicked appointee’s words, his claims about why they are needed were “untethered to facts.”
Another way to put that is that he’s lying.
In just the past week in Chicago, we’ve seen Trump’s agents detain innocent Americans, deny citizens their right to legal representation, zip-tie children, arrest elected officials, ransack apartment buildings and injure journalists. And in recent weeks, they’ve shot two people, leaving one — a father of two young children — dead, making dubious and unsubstantiated claims about why they felt the need to use lethal force.
It’s obvious what Trump is doing. He’s targeting and punishing the cities who dare push back against him — the ones who are willing to call the president what he really is: a wannabe emperor with no clothes, no courage and certainly no moral compass.
And while he’s currently targeting blue cities with his lies, if these deployments are not stopped, there will be nothing to stop him — or any future president — from doing this to anyone, anywhere, for any made-up reason.
PRITZKER SUES TRUMP TO BLOCK NATIONAL GUARD ACTION IN ILLINOIS
Let’s be clear: Ordering our troops to intimidate the very Americans they sacrifice every day to protect does nothing to make our nation safer. Policing Americans in their own communities is not the National Guard’s job. They can’t make arrests, and they’re not adequately trained to carry out police duties in urban environments. These deployments are simply another unwarranted, unwanted and unjust move from Trump straight out of the Authoritarian 101 textbook, further jeopardizing civil rights while distracting our troops from executing their core mission of keeping our families safe from the actual adversaries who wish us harm.
President Donald Trump talks to the media after walking off Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on October 5, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
We know Trump’s actions aren’t about “law and order.” If this 34-time convicted felon actually cared about law and order, he wouldn’t flagrantly and seemingly gleefully refuse to coordinate with state and local officials. He wouldn’t be taking our troops away from their training missions just to do his personal bidding, forcing our heroes to stand on the side of the street picking up trash instead of using their time preparing to protect our nation in case of future conflict. He wouldn’t literally defund the police by freezing and slashing federal dollars that help hire, train and equip law enforcement.
But he did. All of those things, instead of supporting and expanding proven violence and crime prevention strategies that prevent retaliatory escalation.
PRITZKER SAYS TRUMP ORDERING 400 MEMBERS OF THE TEXAS NATIONAL GUARD TO ILLINOIS, OREGON AND OTHER LOCATIONS
Trump is wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to terrorize law-abiding citizens and legal visa holders who are simply exercising their First Amendment rights. And he’s diverting federal resources and agents away from operations that investigate drug cartels and gun traffickers, from missions that identify and disrupt terrorist plots and from actions that protect our families from cyber-attacks to do it.
Military personnel in uniform, with the Texas National Guard patch on, are seen at the U.S. Army Reserve Center on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, in Elwood, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. (AP/Laura Bargfeld)
I drove past some of the National Guardsmen who have been mobilized on the way to work today. I felt for them. Because when they raised their right hands and took their oaths, they didn’t do so to help a draft dodger dodge not just wars but his own personal scandals, too.
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They signed up to defend Americans’ right to free speech — not to intimidate Americans from that act of speaking out. They were willing to die to defend this country — not to defend one man’s ego.
Los Angeles did not ask for this. Washington, D.C., did not ask for this. Portland did not ask for this. Chicago did not ask for this. Our servicemembers do not deserve this. And it is because I respect our military so deeply that I refuse to stay silent as it is disrespected and abused by a man who was never brave enough to serve himself. I cannot and will not let him keep giving our troops the middle finger — taking them from their families and their missions, while eroding the hard-won trust and confidence they’ve earned from the American public over generations.
These days, I may no longer be wearing my Army uniform, but it still hangs proudly in my Senate office. Now, I spend a lot of my time seated under the great, beautiful Capitol Dome rather than beneath my Black Hawk’s main rotors. But my core mission is still the same as when I was in the National Guard: to keep America as strong and safe as she should be.
If only Donald Trump cared about doing the same.
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MILWAUKEE, Wis.– The debate continues during the final public hearing for the Milwaukee Public Schools budget proposal.
The Committee on Strategic Planning and Budget met Tuesday night to discuss the budget proposal ahead of Thursday’s vote.
MPS Superintendent Dr. Brenda Cassellius proposed a $1.6 billion budget for the 2026-2027 school year.
“This is a budget not just for this year,” said Dr. Cassellius. “But the year ahead and the further years where we could be facing a $400 million deficit if we don’t take significant action now.”
The billion dollar proposal addresses the $46 million budget deficit from 2024-2025 that MPS is now facing.
The Milwaukee School Board voted to cut 263 non-classroom jobs back in March to counter the deficit.
A majority of the layoffs were assistant principals and administrative positions.
“Our budget proposal is focused on redistributing limited resources from our central office and administrative roles into our classrooms as much as we can,” said Dr. Cassellius.
The proposition includes adding over 150 teaching positions with a 2.63% pay increase for all teachers.
The district is also adding 414 paraprofessionals roles.
Dr. Cassellius said that the additional positions will reduce class sizes, and create a more personalized learning experience for students.
Community members are concerned that the teachings positions will go unfilled by the start of the school year.
“The goal is to have zero vacancies when the school year begins,” said Chief Human Resources Officer Dominick Maniscalco. “It is very difficult in an organization that has 11,000 employees to say we want to be 100% filled.”
Maniscalco said the district is facing 91 vacancies out of 4,500 teaching positions in May 2026.
“It’s not perfect and we could always do better,” said Maniscalco. “But it’s also not a bad position to be in.”
Speakers at the public hearing voiced concern for teachers impacted by the assistant principal layoffs.
“When that support is reduced, teacher stress increases, contributing to burnout and staff turnover,” said Administrators and Supervisors Council Executive Director Steven Lubar. “At a time when we all know retaining and recruiting educators is a daunting challenge.”
Retired MPS assistant principal Michelle Oxman questioned the board on why the thought of cutting assistant principals was even considered.
“I wish that every administrator, staff, and student body of the schools that are supposed to be losing assistant principals, would walk out,” said Oxman.
The Milwaukee School Board will vote on the budget proposal on Thursday, May 28.
Who will be the next Minneapolis police chief?
After Brian O’Hara’s sudden resignation, there is speculation on who the next Minneapolis police chief will be and if the city is a hard sell for possible candidates. FOX 9’s Mike Manzoni has more.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – The search for the next Minneapolis police chief will soon get underway, but the city’s divided political climate could make the process challenging.
City leaders optimistic ahead of search for next chief
What we know:
At a news conference on Tuesday night announcing Brian O’Hara’s resignation as police chief, Mayor Jacob Frey said, “We’ll recruit a top-notch talent.”
City Council Member Michael Rainville is also optimistic.
“The force is coming back, recruitment is great, the morale is high,” he said. “We’re very – for someone that’s [an] up-and-comer, we’re a very attractive candidacy to be a chief of police.”
But it is not an easy job. The Minneapolis Police Department has faced myriad challenges over the last several years, often grabbing national headlines. It dealt with the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a police officer, a Justice Department report on rampant civil rights violations and ongoing staffing issues.
In addition, the city council has routinely clashed with the mayor, especially on law enforcement matters.
This year, the council twice rejected the mayor’s reappointment of Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette, who oversees the police department. And even before his abrupt departure, some council members expressed concerns about O’Hara’s leadership.
What they’re saying:
“I think that Minneapolis is attractive to candidates who want big city experience,” said FOX 9 political analyst Blois Olson.
Olson does not expect any problems finding candidates and noted the mayor’s influence in the process.
“I don’t think you can try to make all 13 members happy, but you have to get to six or seven members that are happy and then convince the council that the mayor is the mayor, he won the election, and he gets to appoint who he gets to appoint,” he said.
What’s next:
It is unclear when the search for the next police chief will begin.
FISHERS, Ind. — Two Indianapolis teens were arrested after an alleged armed carjacking at a Fishers IHOP.
In a post on Facebook, the Fishers Police Department indicated that its officers were called to the IHOP restaurant located at 9750 North by Northeast Boulevard around 10:39 p.m. Monday to investigate a reported carjacking. After they arrived at the scene, which was located just north of East 96th Street, police determined two suspects had pointed a firearm at a food delivery driver and demanded that they hand over the keys to their car.
After the victim gave up the keys to their car, the suspects fled the scene. FPD reported that the victim was not harmed during their encounter with the suspects.
Police told FOX59/CBS4 that the alleged carjacking appeared to be a crime of opportunity. Investigators believe the suspects saw the delivery driver picking up food at IHOP and took advantage of the opportunity to steal a car.
During their investigation of the alleged carjacking, police reviewed Flock camera data and determined the suspects had driven toward Binford Boulevard after they fled the IHOP. Investigators ultimately tracked the suspects to an apartment complex in Indianapolis.
Law enforcement found the victim’s vehicle in the parking lot of the apartment complex in question. The car was unoccupied when police located it.
FPD ultimately arrested the suspects after receiving a search warrant. Fishers police received assistance with the arrest from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s violent crimes task force and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department’s K-9 and special weapons and tactics (SWAT) units.
Investigators determined the two individuals they arrested in Indianapolis were the suspects implicated in the carjacking via surveillance video. Per FPD, the video confirmed that the suspects were wearing the same clothes during both their arrests and the alleged carjacking.
Police recovered more of the victim’s personal items from their car once they located it. Officers also found the firearm that the suspects allegedly used during the incident. FPD reported that the gun the suspects used during the alleged carjacking had an extended magazine.
Investigators identified one of the suspects as 18-year-old Khalil Glover. The other suspect is a 17-year-old male. FPD did not publicly release the juvenile suspect’s name.
Glover faces the following formal charges:
- Armed robbery — A Level 3 Felony
- Pointing a firearm at another — a Level 6 Felony
- Auto theft — a Level 6 Felony
- Theft where the value of the property stolen is between $750 and $50,000
It is currently unclear if the juvenile implicated in the alleged carjacking will be officially charged as an adult. FPD arrested him on the following preliminary charges:
- Armed robbery — a Level 3 Felony
- Pointing a firearm — a Level 6 Felony
- Auto theft — a Level 6 Felony
- Theft — a Level 6 Felony
- Unlawful carrying of a handgun — a Class A Misdemeanor
Glover and the juvenile suspect were both transported to the Hamilton County jail following their arrests. FPD indicated that, during its interview with Glover, he admitted that he and the juvenile had participated in a robbery. Police have not clarified whether it was Glover or the juvenile who pointed the gun at the victim during the alleged carjacking.
“When someone in our city, whether a resident or someone visiting is victimized, we take it personal,” Fishers Police Chief Ed Gebhart said via release. “We will use all our resources, all our people, and all our partnerships to find criminals and hold them accountable. Technology helps us, but it’s just a tool for good, old-fashioned police work to take place. I’m extremely proud of our team and our ability to work with our law enforcement partners.”
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