Overview

• Trump told reporters that “maybe we’d like to have a dictator” and later said, “I have the right to do anything I want to do,” a repetition observers say is meant to normalize authoritarian options.
• About 2,000 heavily armed National Guard troops are patrolling Washington, D.C., and the administration has threatened deployments to Democratic-run cities including Chicago and possibly Baltimore and New York after earlier deployments in Los Angeles.
• Reporting describes federal power leveraged against critics, including an FBI raid on John Bolton’s home and office and an effort to oust Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook based on unproven mortgage-fraud accusations advanced by FHFA director Bill Pulte.
• The White House is pushing electoral advantages, with Texas Republicans redrawing districts at Trump’s urging to create five additional safe House seats and parallel efforts reported against postal voting and for a census excluding undocumented migrants.
• Resistance is building, as Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker warned Trump not to send troops to Chicago and a Reuters/Ipsos poll found only 38% support for Guard deployment in D.C., while some critics label the city deployments a ‘dress rehearsal’ for martial law.