Overview

• Speaking to roughly 800 generals and admirals at Marine Corps Base Quantico, the president called crime and immigration a “war from within” and said troops would go into Chicago “very soon,” citing San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles as targets for intervention.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pressed a harder warfighting posture, condemned restrictive rules of engagement, and rolled out culture and fitness directives as part of the administration’s rebranding of the Pentagon as the Department of War.
• The administration has already deployed National Guard forces to Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles and announced or approved missions to Portland and Memphis, with the president highlighting a new National Guard quick reaction force created by executive order.
• Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said a DHS memo seeks 100 military personnel for Illinois to protect ICE facilities, signaling preparations that state and local leaders warn they will resist.
• Legal and civil-liberties concerns intensified as critics warned of authoritarian overreach and observers flagged Posse Comitatus limits, while Trump also said service members should be allowed to retaliate against civilians who spit on them, stating, “They spit, we hit.”