A self-admitted shoplifter in Portland is suing a grocery store after an employee stopped him mid-theft, setting up a case that underscores the growing tension between crime, order, and liability in one of America’s most leftist cities.
Joshua Merkel, 45, filed a $10,000 lawsuit against Albertsons and a store employee after attempting to steal a cart full of groceries in March 2024. Merkel openly admitted in court that he had no intention of paying for the items, telling jurors, “I understand I was committing a crime.”
Now, he’s arguing the employee who stopped him went too far.
The incident unfolded at a Southwest Portland Albertsons, where Merkel loaded up a shopping cart with food and walked out of the store without paying, according to court records. The lone employee working the register, Matthew “Deme” Cooper, chased him into the parking lot and confronted him.
What happened next escalated into a physical altercation that left Merkel with a fractured jaw and other injuries. But when prosecutors attempted to charge Cooper with second-degree assault, a charge that carried a potential six-year sentence, a jury took less than two hours to acquit him, rejecting the claim that his actions rose to criminal conduct.
Despite that acquittal, Merkel is now pursuing the case in civil court, claiming the employee used excessive force and seeking damages for medical bills and what he describes as “mental anguish.”
Merkel’s own testimony undercuts much of his claim. He admitted to planning the theft, loading up items in the cart with his girlfriend, and leaving the store without attempting to pay, despite having money on him at the time. 
While Merkel said hunger motivated the theft, during the criminal trial, defense attorneys argued he was selecting higher-value items, including T-bone steaks, with the intent to trade them for drugs. Merkel himself acknowledged that he has used methamphetamine on and off for roughly a decade, though he denied that it was his motive in this case.
The civil lawsuit lands as Portland continues to grapple with soaring retail theft. Monthly shoplifting reports in the city in 2026 have more than doubled since 2023, according to <a href="https://public.tableau.com/shared/SPRMC323F?:display_count=n&amp;:origin=viz_share_link">local police data</a>.
<div id="viz1776444109623" class="tableauPlaceholder" style="position: relative;">
<div style="width: 860px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" style="border: none;" src="https://public.tableau.com/static/images/SP/SPRMC323F/1_rss.png" alt=" " width="850" height="1127" />Reported Crime Trend Report via Portland Police Bureau</div>
</div>
Critics say the civil lawsuit reflects a broader trend in liberal jurisdictions, where criminals increasingly attempt to leverage the legal system against those who stop them — turning victims and bystanders into defendants.
“Crime should not pay,” said O.H. Skinner, executive director of the Alliance For Consumers (AFC). “This lawsuit in Oregon is exactly the kind of situation we have been warning about. A self-admitted shoplifter should not be allowed to sue the Albertsons security guard who stopped him.”
“But this is the exact kind of lawsuit trial lawyers use for a big payday,” Skinner added. “They can then use this payday to enrich Democratic allies through the Shady Trial Lawyer Pipeline and push political agendas outside of the legislative process.” 
The case also raises practical questions for businesses already struggling with theft. The situation has contributed to a wave of store closures across Portland, including the Albertsons location where the incident occurred, which permanently closed in July 2025. Many retailers instruct employees not to physically intervene in shoplifting incidents to avoid legal risk, even if it means allowing merchandise to be stolen. 
Merkel’s lawsuit tests the limits of that approach, raising the question of whether someone caught in the act of committing a crime can successfully claim damages for how they were stopped.
The case is currently pending in Multnomah County, with no court date yet set.

Highway and neon sign at night, Portland, Oregon, USA

A Man Who Tried To Steal Groceries Is Now Suing The Employee Who Stopped Him

Crime

Lawsuit

Portland

It appears more criminals are trying to run over DHS agents. Last Thursday in Portland, Oregon, two criminals attempting to run over an ICE agent were shot. 
Now, you’re not hearing quite as much about this story as the story in Minneapolis. That’s because it wasn’t some white lesbian activist. In this case, as the <a href="https://katu.com/news/local/homeland-security-identifies-venezuelan-couple-shot-by-border-agent-in-portland-incident-dhs-cpb-tren-de-aragua-gang-prostitution-ring-luis-david-nico-moncada-yorlenys-betzabeth-zambrano-contreras">local news</a> in Portland reports, the two people who tried to run over the federal agent were a suspected gangster and his prostitute, both of whom appear to have ties to Tren de Aragua. 
This is another example of body camera footage and the facts vindicating law enforcement, totally upending the liberal narrative. The same thing happened in Minneapolis. In fact, the Left&#8217;s attempt to gin up these kinds of stories against cops goes all the way back to the Michael Brown case.
Here we have a very clear case: illegal immigrants associated with a particularly violent Venezuelan gang, running a human trafficking ring, trying to run over cops, who were then shot. It appears they weren’t killed, but they were stopped.
And yet, the Police Chief in Portland, Bob Day, had a different take on law enforcement preventing Latin American gangsters from running them over:
Watch:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Portland Police Chief Bob Day deserves to be mocked.
This is pathetic. 
<a href="https://t.co/xFQM2Lqsqi">pic.twitter.com/xFQM2Lqsqi</a>
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) <a href="https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2010013019842195757?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Credit: @GuntherEagleman/CollinRugg/X.com
<blockquote>And what I can say is there is an association with the two folks yesterday and TDA, Tren de Aragua. I hesitated to even share this information initially because I’m very aware of the historic injustice of victim blaming, oftentimes portrayed by law enforcement, including this very agency that I’ve represented so proudly for so many years — for just a moment, specifically to my Latino community. It’s sad and small, my goodness, that we even have to qualify these remarks, because I understand — or at least have attempted to understand through your voices — your concern, your fear, your anger. This information in no way is meant to condone or support or agree with any of the actions that occurred yesterday.</blockquote>
What actions occurred yesterday?
The actions that occurred were that Venezuelan gangsters, associated with a foreign terrorist organization, tried to run over a cop, and he shot them.
He says, “I hesitated to even share this information initially because I’m very aware of the historic injustice of victim blaming&#8230;&#8221;
The victim in this case being a Venezuelan pimp terrorist who was trying to run over a cop in America.
He says, “This information in no way is meant to condone…”
You don’t condone it? You should resign. You don’t condone federal law enforcement protecting itself against a terrorist trying to run them over? A pimp, Venezuelan illegal terrorist trying to run them over? You don’t condone that? Then you need to resign, because your judgment is severely impaired.
Portland’s police chief then starts crying. Crying? Even the most sensitive woman, the most opposed to violence, a dainty little gal with a modicum of common sense would not cry in this situation. If one were to cry in this situation, it would be on behalf of the poor law enforcement officer almost run over by these animals.
But no, he cries for the animals.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1888-tren-de-aragua-members-get-shot-try-to-run-over-ice?elementPosition=6&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Michael Knowles Show</a></h3>
So how do we prevent more incidents like these? Allow federal law enforcement to vigorously enforce the law. 
Because if we don&#8217;t, one of two things will happen. Either these people are going to run amok, which will result in more rioting and a lot of dead leftist agitators, as happened during BLM. When the politicians told the cops to stand down, BLM burned down cities across the country. Dozens of people caught up in the mob violence were killed, many of them sympathetic to BLM. The other option is police and federal agents not allowing themselves to be run over — whether by agitators, white ladies in Minneapolis, or foreign gangsters. Those are the only two options.
If you want fewer dead agitators, which I do, then allow law enforcement to do their job. I don&#8217;t celebrate the death of the lady in Minneapolis. I don&#8217;t even really celebrate when Tren de Aragua gang members are mowed down. I would much rather see them reformed. Let them repent and lead flourishing lives. 
So if you want those people not to be injured or killed, you need the law to be enforced. You need to smash some windows in the cars blocking ICE officers, move them out of the street, and let law enforcement do their job.

MixCollage-12-Jan-2026-04-10-PM-9944

Teary-Eyed Police Chief Says DHS Shot Tren De Aragua–Linked Suspects

Through Tears, Police Chief Says DHS Shot Tren De Aragua–Linked Suspects

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Michael Knowles

Minneapolis

Opinion

Oregon

Police

Tren De Aragua

New shocking details have emerged in the case of a suspected member of the notorious Venezuelan prison Tren de Aragua, who federal authorities have charged with attempting to run over U.S. immigration officers in Portland.
One Border Patrol agent pulled a gun and fired a “defensive shot” at the vehicle, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The suspected gang member and his passenger, a suspected Tren de Aragua-tied prostitute, sped off.
The Daily Wire obtained newly unsealed charges filed against the driver, Luis David Nico Moncada, who is now charged with aggravated assault of a federal officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon and depredation of federal property in excess of $1,000.
Moncada, who crossed the border illegally during the Biden administration and later received a deportation order, was driving the alleged prostitute in a red pickup truck when he was pulled over by six Border Patrol agents.
Four of the agents approached Moncada, who appeared &#8220;anxious and visibly moving around in the driver&#8217;s seat,&#8221; and asked him and the alleged prostitute to exit the vehicle.
Instead, Moncada reversed his car and hit an unoccupied Border Patrol vehicle &#8220;with enough speed and force to cause significant damage,&#8221; according to the charging documents. He then put his car in drive, &#8220;and continued the forward/reverse maneuver multiple times, striking the Border Patrol vehicle multiple times.&#8221;
One of the agents fired their gun at Moncada before he fled the scene.
Another agent on scene told federal investigators he feared Moncada could strike the agents or another car, according to the charging documents.
Photos included in the documents appear to show that the Border Patrol vehicle&#8217;s bumper was torn off, both headlights were destroyed, the front driver-side quarter panel was dented, and the driver side rear-passenger door and quarter panel were dented.
<div id="attachment_1026301" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1026301" class="wp-image-1026301 size-medium" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Untitled-design-2026-01-09T094658.091-1-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Untitled-design-2026-01-09T094658.091-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Untitled-design-2026-01-09T094658.091-1-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Untitled-design-2026-01-09T094658.091-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Untitled-design-2026-01-09T094658.091-1.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Credit: The Department of Homeland Security</div>
Moncada called 911 after fleeing the scene. When responding authorities applied a tourniquet to Moncada, he repeatedly stated “f*ck ICE.”
Both Moncada and the alleged prostitute, later identified as Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, were hospitalized with gunshot wounds.
In a later interview with the FBI, Moncada &#8220;admitted to intentionally ramming the Border Patrol vehicle in an attempt to flee, and he stated that he knew they were immigration enforcement vehicles,&#8221; according to the charging documents.
Zambrano-Contreras also crossed the border illegally under the Biden administration and was required to check in with ICE after she was released, but never did, according to the charging documents.
She was allegedly involved in a shooting on July 7 tied to a bad prostitution deal. Before the shooting, Zambrano-Contreras called Moncada &#8220;to pick her up&#8221; and then contacted &#8220;a friend &#8230; who always carried a gun.&#8221;
The friend, who is identified as &#8220;Alex,&#8221; showed up at the scene with several other men who proceeded to break into an apartment where the alleged customer was holding the alleged prostitute&#8217;s earnings and belongings.
Agents were looking to arrest Zambrano-Contreras when the shooting occurred on Thursday.
Authorities had also tied the shell casings recovered that day to a shooting that took place three days later. That shooting involved a car purchase gone wrong involving Tren de Aragua members.
The Portland shooting took place one day after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. Before the shooting, the woman appeared to be blocking a road with her vehicle.
Federal agents were then seen approaching her vehicle and ordering her to get out of the car, before she backed up and pulled her car forward.
An agent who appeared to have been hit by the car fired a fatal shot at the woman.
The Department of Homeland Security called the incident &#8220;an act of domestic terrorism.&#8221;
“This is the direct consequence of constant attacks and demonization of our officers by sanctuary politicians who fuel and encourage rampant assaults on our law enforcement who are facing 1,300% increase in assaults against them and an 8,000% increase in death threats,” the agency said.
The incident sparked mass protests across Minneapolis.

Untitled design – 2026-01-12T082152.344

Shocking Details Emerge After Suspected Tren De Aragua Gangbanger Rammed Border Patrol In Portland

New Details Emerge After Suspected Tren de Aragua Gangbanger Allegedly Rammed Border Patrol Car In P

Border Patrol

Shooting

In a striking press conference on Friday, Portland Police Chief Bob Day admitted that the Department of Homeland Security was correct about a shooting involving alleged Tren de Aragua gang members &#8212; before Day broke down in tears about having to share the truth with the public.
Per DHS, two people were injured in a shooting on Thursday when a Border Patrol agent fired a defensive shot while conducting a targeted stop on a vehicle carrying two people allegedly affiliated with the Tren de Aragua gang. &#8220;When agents identified themselves to the vehicle occupants, the driver weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over the law enforcement agents,&#8221; DHS said in a statement.
Police Chief Day admitted those involved in the shooting were indeed tied to TDA, a brutal Venezuela-based gang.
&#8220;What I can say is there is an association with the two folks yesterday and TDA,&#8221; Day admitted. &#8220;I hesitated to even share this information initially because I&#8217;m very aware of the historic injustice of victim-blaming oftentimes portrayed by law enforcement, including this very agency.&#8221;
&#8220;Historically, we have not been quick to disclose the potential criminal history of others, but I felt it was imperative because I was asked yesterday in the news conference what information we have,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;This is information we have. This in no way draws a through-line to the actions or the behaviors that occurred yesterday.&#8221;
Then, breaking down in tears, Day addressed the &#8220;Latino community.&#8221;
&#8220;It saddens &#8212; it saddens me that we even have to qualify these remarks,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Because I understand, or at least have attempted to understand through your voices, your concern, your fear, your anger &#8212; this information in no way meant to disparage or to condone or support or agree with any of the actions that occurred yesterday.&#8221;
The police chief added that it&#8217;s &#8220;important that we stay committed to the rule of law, that we stay committed to the facts, that we stay &#8230; trustworthy and legitimate.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Portland Police Chief Bob Day deserves to be mocked.
This is pathetic. 
<a href="https://t.co/xFQM2Lqsqi">pic.twitter.com/xFQM2Lqsqi</a>
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) <a href="https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2010013019842195757?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2026</a></blockquote>
Journalist Andy Ngo underscored on X the city and state leadership&#8217;s commitment to condemning federal authorities, instead of reiterating the facts involved in the case from the start.
&#8220;The entire city and state leadership, all run by Democrats, organized an emergency press conference to condemn the federal agents, reject DHS&#8217; statement and to express support with the violent suspects, who they called the &#8216;victims,'&#8221; Ngo said. &#8220;Local and national media also misled the public about the shooting. A mob showed up to try to attack the ICE facility, leading to six arrests.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Portland Police <a href="https://twitter.com/ChiefBobDay?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ChiefBobDay</a> cries at a press conference after having to affirm that <a href="https://twitter.com/DHSgov?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DHSgov</a> was correct in stating that the illegal Venezuelan migrants accused of trying to run down Border Patrol have ties to Tren de Aragua. Chief Day admitted that he hesitated to share the… <a href="https://t.co/wxdT53yWsD">pic.twitter.com/wxdT53yWsD</a>
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) <a href="https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/2009844404320653512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2026</a></blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/live-updates-ice-agent-fatally-shoots-agitator-as-chaos-erupts-in-minneapolis?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Daily+Wire&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=LIVE+UPDATES%3A+Anti-ICE+Protesters+Harass+Minneapolis+Police+On+Wild+Night+Of+Demonstrations">LIVE UPDATES: Anti-ICE Protesters Harass Minneapolis Police On Wild Night Of Demonstrations</a>

Screenshot 2026-01-10 at 3.05.57 PM

Blubbering Portland Police Chief Admits DHS Was Right About Border Patrol Shooting, Tren De Aragua

Illegal Immigration

Law Enforcement

U.S.

Two illegal immigrants linked to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua were shot after allegedly trying to run over U.S. Border Patrol agents in Portland on Thursday, according to federal authorities.
While Democratic leaders in Oregon&#8217;s sanctuary state have condemned the shooting and even called it &#8220;reckless,&#8221; the Trump administration has shared the rap sheets of the injured illegal immigrants that tell a different story.
The Department of Homeland Security said Friday that the two individuals are &#8220;suspected Tren de Aragua gang associates&#8221; who were &#8220;let loose on American streets by Joe Biden&#8221; and ultimately &#8220;weaponized their vehicle against Border Patrol in Portland.&#8221;
The pair of illegal immigrants allegedly refused to exit their vehicle as Border Patrol agents were attempting to arrest Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, then tried to run the feds over, according to DHS.
DHS defended the agent who shot the two illegal immigrants, saying he &#8220;took immediate action to defend himself and others, shooting them.&#8221;
The vehicle&#8217;s driver, who is accused of trying to plow down the agents, was identified as suspected Tren de Aragua gangbanger Luis David Nico Moncada, who was released into the United States after crossing the border illegally in 2022, according to DHS.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Yesterday, two suspected Tren de Aragua gang associates—let loose on American streets by Joe Biden—weaponized their vehicle against Border Patrol in Portland. The agent took immediate action to defend himself and others, shooting them.
The driver of the vehicle, Luis David Nico… <a href="https://t.co/E7qHKKfp6b">pic.twitter.com/E7qHKKfp6b</a>
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) <a href="https://twitter.com/DHSgov/status/2009638506339926497?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2026</a></blockquote>
Since he entered the United States, Moncada racked up arrests for DUI and unauthorized use of a vehicle, along with a deportation order from an immigration judge, DHS said.
The passenger, Zambrano-Contreras, was tagged by DHS as an &#8220;associate&#8221; of Tren de Aragua, who crossed the border illegally in 2023 before she was released into the country.
Since then, she&#8217;s &#8220;played an active role in a Tren de Aragua prostitution ring and was involved with a prior shooting in Portland,&#8221; DHS said.
Tren de Aragua&#8217;s prostitution rings are widespread across the country and have become a cash cow for the gang.
Thursday&#8217;s shooting comes just one day after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renee Good, 37, in Minneapolis.
The Trump administration said the ICE officer fired &#8220;defensive shots&#8221; against Good, who they said was obstructing agents and committing acts of &#8220;domestic terrorism.&#8221;
Democratic leaders in Minnesota, however, have defended Good&#8217;s actions and accused the ICE officer of murder.

Untitled design – 2026-01-09T094658.091

Meet The Tren de Aragua-Tied Illegals Who DHS Says Tried To Run Over Border Agents In Portland

illegal immigrants

A suspected member of the notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua attempted to run over federal immigration officers in Portland, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
One Border Patrol officer pulled a gun and fired a “defensive shot” at the vehicle. The suspected gang member and his passenger, also suspected of gang ties, sped off.
“At 2:19 PST, US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop in Portland, Oregon. The passenger of the vehicle and target is a Venezuelan illegal alien affiliated with the transnational Tren de Aragua prostitution ring and involved in a recent shooting in Portland,” Homeland Security said. “The vehicle driver is believed to be a member of the vicious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. When agents identified themselves to the vehicle occupants, the driver weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over the law enforcement agents.”
“Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired a defensive shot. The driver drove off with the passenger, fleeing the scene,” the statement continued.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
At 2:19 PST, US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop in Portland, Oregon. The passenger of the vehicle and target is a Venezuelan illegal alien affiliated with the transnational Tren de Aragua prostitution ring and involved in a recent shooting in…
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) <a href="https://twitter.com/DHSgov/status/2009427948541993323?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2026</a></blockquote>
The department released the statement after <a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-shooting-oregon-5eeffe06106f711b8a17f6072ad9b53d">reports</a> began to circulate that federal immigration agents shot and wounded two people in Portland. It was not immediately clear if the reports and the statement from Homeland Security are related.
The shooting in Portland comes a day after an ICE agent fatally <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/violent-agitator-who-tried-to-run-over-ice-agents-in-minneapolis-fatally-shot-by-feds-dhs-says">shot</a> a woman in Minneapolis. The woman had blocked a road with her vehicle. As federal officers exited their vehicles and approached her vehicle, requesting she exit hers, the woman backed up before pulling her car forward. One officer in front of the car then fired a fatal shot at the woman.
The Department of Homeland Security defended the ICE agents’ conduct, calling the incident “an act of domestic terrorism.”
“This is the direct <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/minnesota-shooting-comes-amid-record-surge-in-violent-threats-and-assaults-against-ice-agents?author=Jennie+Taer&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Minnesota+Shooting+Comes+Amid+Record+Surge+In+Violent+Threats+And+Assaults+Against+ICE+Agents">consequence</a> of constant attacks and demonization of our officers by sanctuary politicians who fuel and encourage rampant assaults on our law enforcement who are facing 1,300% increase in assaults against them and an 8,000% increase in death threats,” the agency said.
The event sparked mass demonstrations in Minneapolis. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz threatened to call in the National Guard and called for mass protests across the United States against immigration officers.

Border Patrol agent

Suspected Gang Member ‘Weaponized’ Vehicle Against Border Patrol Agents In Portland, DHS Says

Immigration

Venezuela

President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that he is pulling National Guard troops from three deep blue cities.
“We are removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, despite the fact that CRIME has been greatly reduced by having these great Patriots in those cities, and ONLY by that fact,” Trump posted on <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115816171466225987">Truth Social</a>. “Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago were GONE if it weren’t for the Federal Government stepping in.”
The president said that the withdrawal is not permanent and that the troops will be redeployed depending on crime in the cities.
“We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again &#8211; Only a question of time! It is hard to believe that these Democrat Mayors and Governors, all of whom are greatly incompetent, would want us to leave, especially considering the great progress that has been made???” he wrote.
The withdrawal comes after Trump’s efforts to reduce crime and protect federal immigration agents in major cities suffered a setback from the Supreme Court last week. The court denied Trump’s request to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents carrying out deportation operations in the city.
“At this preliminary stage, the government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois,” an unsigned order from the court <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/23/politics/supreme-court-blocks-trump-national-guard-chicago">said</a>.
“[Trump] activated the National Guard to protect federal law enforcement officers, and to ensure rioters did not destroy federal buildings and property,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said at the time. “Nothing in today’s ruling detracts from that core agenda.”
ICE agents under Trump have faced a skyrocketing number of attacks and threats. The Department of Homeland Security reported that ICE agents have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ice-agent-brutally-injured-by-violent-illegal-immigrant-pedophile-speaks-out">faced</a> a 1,000% increase in assaults and an 8,000% increase in death threats.

Texas National Guard

Trump Pulls National Guard Troops From Deep Blue Cities

Chicago

Donald Trump

Los Angeles

National Guard

Cinnabon In San Diego

The ‘N-Word’ Just Got A Cinnabon Employee Fired, And Earned A Violent Criminal His Freedom

The 'N-Word' Just Got A Cinnabon Employee Fired, And Earned A Violent Criminal His Freedom

Blacks

Hate Speech

Matt Walsh

Minnesota

Somalis

Stabbing

Violent Crime

Whites

Wisconsin

A man who has referred to himself as &#8220;Osama bin Laden&#8221; and &#8220;Timothy McVeigh&#8221; is now facing criminal charges after allegedly threatening to kill federal immigration officers and sexually assault their wives.
John Paul Cupp, of Portland, is a &#8220;prolific producer&#8221; of content involving &#8220;aggressive rhetoric, calls for war against the United States, antisemitic threats, and threats of violence&#8221; who has zeroed in on Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel and their families, <a href="https://x.com/FBIPortland/status/1993098469972525178" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the FBI. His latest alleged calls for violence come as federal immigration agents face an 8,000% increase in death threats, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Cupp also told authorities &#8220;that he was Osama bin Laden and Timothy McVeigh,&#8221; according to the FBI <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/955228492/FBI-affidavit-John-Cupp#content=query:osama,pageNum:8,indexOnPage:0,bestMatch:false">affidavit</a>.
“Our ICE law enforcement officers face an 8,000% increase in death threats against them while they risk their lives every single day to remove the worst of the worst including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, terrorists, and gang members,&#8221; Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement shared with The Daily Wire.
&#8220;From bounties placed on their heads for their murders, threats to their families, stalking, and doxxing online, our officers are experiencing an unprecedented level of violence and threats against them and their families. Secretary Noem has been clear: if you threaten or lay a hand on law enforcement, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,&#8221; she said.
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<a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQZ7nsIku-s/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Abu Nusaybah Al Amriki (@walidalamriki)</a>
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Cupp was first spotted yelling at officers approaching a crowd in October, according to the Department of Justice. The 45-year-old posted a video the next month, repeating his earlier threats, and continued posting them online days later.
Some threats lodged against ICE have tragically materialized. In September, a shooter <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/second-illegal-immigrant-detainee-dies-after-dallas-ice-shooting">opened fire</a> on an ICE facility in Dallas, killing two detainees as he tried to aim at federal agents.
A group of accused Antifa terrorists allegedly lured agents out of an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas, by setting off fireworks on the Fourth of July before opening fire on them. One police officer was shot in the neck during the attack.

Untitled design – 2025-12-01T143136.366

Portland Radical Accused Of Threatening To Kill ICE Agents, Sexually Assault Their Wives

Portland Rioter 'Osama Bin Laden' Accused Of Threatening To Kill ICE Agents, Sexually Assault Their 

Antifa

antisemitism

Osama bin Laden

radical

Timothy McVeigh

It was another totally normal Sunday in Portland — if your idea of normal involves spandex-clad lefty activists grapevining in front of a federal detention center.
Roughly two dozen self-described freedom fighters <a href="https://www.portlandmercury.com/photo-essay/2025/11/11/48117439/sweating-out-the-fascism-with-anti-ice-aerobics?utm_source=chatgpt.com">gathered outside the ICE facility</a> in the city’s South Waterfront earlier this week for what they called “Sweatin’ Out the Fascists.” Their chosen form of resistance? Aerobics.
Yes, the neon-leotard, Jane-Fonda-in-1983 kind.
The group, organized by a local gym called Fulcrum Fitness, claimed they were standing up for democracy and due process. Apparently, nothing says “down with authoritarianism” like synchronized lunges to Depeche Mode. Participants sported animal-print tights, leg warmers, and righteous indignation, all while doing their best to out-woo each other in time to new-wave beats from the 1980s. One instructor yelled, “It’s time to sweat out the fascists!” into a microphone — a sentence that surely made future historians put down their pens in despair.
In a city where past protests have involved tear gas and federal agents, this one had a different energy: part political statement, part flash-mob nostalgia trip, part very public cardio session. The organizers framed it as a “playful, creative” approach to dissent, as some demonstrators have been using absurd visuals to mock the Trump administration’s <a href="https://time.com/7321220/trump-portland-troops-antifa-deploy/">assessment</a> that a Portland ICE facility was “under siege from attack by Antifa” as exaggerated. Others might call it performance art for people who still own a VHS copy of Flashdance.
Halfway through the spectacle, ICE officers appeared on the roof with pepper-ball guns at the ready — a surreal juxtaposition of federal muscle and fluorescent spandex. Nearby campers got a few rounds of pepper balls for their trouble, while the aerobics crowd kept “vibing,” to use one participant’s word, apparently believing fascism could be burned off like extra calories.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Anti-ICE protesters do the “anti-ICE dance” in Portland. <a href="https://t.co/85pqLQyTEM">pic.twitter.com/85pqLQyTEM</a>
&mdash; Catch Up (@CatchUpFeed) <a href="https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1988981551674323294?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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The protest’s vibe of cheery absurdity fits into a local trend: previous anti-ICE events at the same facility have featured inflatable frogs, Latin dance classes, and crochet circles. It’s less Les Misérables and more Portlandia: The Resistance Edition.
One participant declared the goal was to show Portland isn’t “a war-torn city on fire” but a “fun-loving city” — because nothing says civic stability like mock-jogging in front of federal law enforcement. Another insisted that synchronized movement and community spirit were ways to “defy the fascist government.”
In the end, the protesters declared victory, having successfully demonstrated that revolution can, in fact, come in Day-Glo spandex and high-impact step routines. Whether ICE felt the burn remains unclear, but one thing’s certain: Portland has officially turned resistance into a workout plan.

MixCollage-13-Nov-2025-11-04-AM-1469

Hilarious: Spandex-Clad Activists Vs. ICE Is A Workout In Wokeness

Aerobics

General

Politics

Protest

President Donald Trump returns from the Middle East with the Gaza peace deal secured, NYC mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani faces foreign funding accusations, and the Trump administration battles the courts as it moves to send National Guard troops to Portland and Chicago.
It’s Tuesday, October 14, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:
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If you would rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">Trump&#8217;s Middle East Peace Summit</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-985463" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Peace-Plan-Inked-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Peace-Plan-Inked-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Peace-Plan-Inked-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Peace-Plan-Inked-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Peace-Plan-Inked-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Peace-Plan-Inked.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: President Trump ended his historic peace trip to the Middle East with a short stint in Egypt, where he led a summit on the future of Gaza.
After leaving Israel, Trump traveled to Egypt to cement “peace in the Middle East” by bringing the Arab and Muslim countries together. Trump went to the resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh to lead a summit with nearly three dozen world leaders and signed the “The Trump Declaration for Enduring Peace and Prosperity” alongside the leaders of Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar.
What comes next?: While many questions about the future of Gaza remain, Trump’s message in Egypt was optimistic: “Together, we&#8217;ve achieved what everybody said was impossible. At long last, we have peace in the Middle East.”
Israel has yet to recover the remains of numerous hostages. While those released alive have returned, the bodies of several victims who died in Hamas custody are believed to remain in Gaza, possibly lost amid the widespread destruction.
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Humanitarian aid is flowing into the warzone after Israeli forces pulled back from the interior of Gaza for the ceasefire. According to Trump, Gazans will be assisted in the rebuilding of the enclave by foreign money and manpower, with much of it coming from Arab and Muslim countries.
Hamas intransigence: Under the Trump peace plan, Gaza is to be administered by a mix of Palestinian and foreign technocrats led by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Their work would be overseen by a board chaired by Trump.
But Hamas must first give up any future role in running Gaza — something the terror group has refused to do. The plan also demands Hamas’s complete disarmament, another condition the group has not met.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Mamdani Campaign&#8217;s Foreign Funders</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-985461" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Money-For-Mamdani-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Money-For-Mamdani-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Money-For-Mamdani-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Money-For-Mamdani-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Money-For-Mamdani-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Money-For-Mamdani.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The high-profile race for mayor in New York City is just three weeks away – and a new controversy has erupted surrounding the leading candidate, far-Left Democrat Zohran Mamdani. A <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/10/12/us-news/mamdanis-mayoral-campaign-took-in-13000-in-illegal-foreign-campaign-cash-records-show/">new report</a> alleges that his campaign potentially accepted thousands of dollars in illegal foreign donations.
Morning Wire spoke to Miranda Devine, a columnist at the New York Post and host of the Podforce One podcast, for more on this story. (The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.)
Morning Wire: We just had news break from the New York Post that Mamdani&#8217;s mayoral campaign took in potentially $13,000 in illegal foreign donations. What are the implications of this? Do you think Mamdani will be held to account – or will this affect the race at all?
Devine: I doubt very much. I mean, Democrats all over the country have been caught red-handed doing all sorts of nefarious things or threatening to murder their Republican foes and nothing happens to them – unless the federal government, the DOJ, perhaps under Pam Bondi, is ballsy enough to actually charge him. There have been plenty of other politicians, particularly on the Republican side, who&#8217;ve gotten into trouble and been charged and even indicted and convicted of this kind of foreign fraud or election fraud. I don&#8217;t see why Mamdani would be any different. On the other hand, we had Donald Trump indicted and charged last year during his campaign – and there&#8217;s something on the nose about, you know, three weeks before an election, about intervening in a sort of illegal sense, which I think would backfire in New York, which is 70 percent Democrat.
Morning Wire: Right, so that might actually work to Mamdani&#8217;s advantage if Bondi continues to be aggressive, as she has been on the national stage. We&#8217;ve also just seen Mamdani&#8217;s wife on social media openly mourn the death of a Palestinian influencer – a man referred to as “Mr. FAFO,” who celebrated the October 7th terror attacks.
Devine: Yes, look, I mean, repellent, but not surprising. This is an influencer who is a Hamas guy. He&#8217;s a Hamas fan. For Mamdani&#8217;s wife to be openly celebrating him on social media just shows how clueless they both are about the optics – in a very Jewish city – of celebrating the murderers of so many Jews on October 7. And particularly at this time when the hostages are coming back, when Donald Trump has managed to pull off this immense peace deal. It seemed churlish and sort of yesterday. She&#8217;s operating on a yesterday view. And it really shows you how he and his entire family are so unsuitable for any kind of leadership role, let alone in America&#8217;s greatest city.
Morning Wire: What do you expect in the next few weeks in this race? Are there any signs of Sliwa dropping out, or any movement for Cuomo – or does Mamdani have this wrapped up?
Devine: Cuomo has surged in the polls most recently, and that&#8217;s because he&#8217;s benefited almost entirely from Eric Adams dropping out. Eric Adams was at the bottom of the pile, not doing well at all. Curtis Sliwa is at 15%. In a very Democrat city, he really hasn&#8217;t managed to make a mark. And, you know, there&#8217;s a lot of push for him to pull out, so that it&#8217;s just a Cuomo versus Mamdani race. Cuomo is now at about 33%, Mamdani is at 46%. With Sliwa in the race, there&#8217;s really no hope. Cuomo, he’s starting to up his game a little bit. There are a few ads that are coming out. Mamdani is being booed and heckled wherever he goes. It&#8217;s been noted that he has a vast security force around him. … He&#8217;s such a smiling sort of Teflon candidate and Cuomo is battered and bruised and has enormous amounts of baggage he&#8217;s lugging around from his governorship. And yet, now Mamdani is starting to have some of the gloss come off him. And look, it&#8217;s really up to Cuomo in the next three weeks. Is he going to be able to convince Sliwa to drop out? Is he going to be able to put some more energy and pep into his campaign?
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Judges Block Trump&#8217;s Efforts To Deploy Guard To Blue Cities</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-985459" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Federal-Forces-Deployed-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Federal-Forces-Deployed-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Federal-Forces-Deployed-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Federal-Forces-Deployed-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Federal-Forces-Deployed-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Federal-Forces-Deployed.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: President Trump says the deployments are needed to protect federal property and crush violent unrest in Chicago and Portland, but the efforts have been held up in the courts due to ongoing lawsuits.
The Trump administration is facing expected pushback from the sanctuary states of Illinois and Oregon, which don’t believe President Trump can federalize state National Guard from their own states, or from other states such as Texas and California, to come in amid a rise in anti-ICE demonstrations, some of which have turned violent.
Although judges in these cases say troops must stand down for now, the Trump administration is finding more ways to expand manpower in these areas. That includes continuing to pull Border Patrol agents from the border and ICE agents from other offices in other states.
The Trump administration is still pushing for National Guard deployments amid a 1,000% uptick in assaults on immigration agents. In the meantime, additional ICE officers and Border Patrol agents are deployed in Portland and Chicago to provide security, conduct immigration raids, and work in detention centers to process new detainees.
Missing children: President Trump inherited a massive crisis of lost alien children from the Biden administration.
John Fabbricatore is leading the Trump administration’s effort at Health and Human Services (HHS) to find the more than 320,000 migrant kids who crossed the border without parents and went unaccounted for under former President Joe Biden.
Some of these children were never even given court dates for their immigration cases, and others never showed. When children cross the border unaccompanied, they are sent to HHS, which is tasked with connecting them with their sponsor in the United States.
However, under Biden, HHS was vetting these sponsors with a phone call and a photo. As a result, many of these children ended up being trafficked and in very inhumane conditions.
Fabbricatore told The Daily Wire that the Trump administration is prioritizing not only finding these children, but also fixing the vetting system that allowed this tragedy to unfold. That means making changes to the system inherited from former President Biden.
The Trump administration requires sponsors and other adults living with them to submit their fingerprints to undergo background checks. Additionally, sponsors are required to submit proof of income to show they can support the child. Sponsors who claim they are related to the child will also undergo DNA testing.
Homeland Security agents also meet with the sponsor, and HHS officials visit the home to ensure it’s a safe place for the child. Migrants 14 or older can opt to leave with the help of the federal government, which will assist them in reconnecting with their families back home by offering flights and a $2,500 stipend. All of this is voluntary and has to be approved by an immigration judge.

MRN_251014_V2

Morning Brief: Trump Inks Peace Deal, Mamdani’s Money Mystery, & States Resist Guard Deployments

Morning Brief: Trump's Peace Summit, Mamdani’s Foreign Cash, And Trump’s Troop Deployment Stumbles

Egypt

Media

Middle East

Morning Wire

New York City

Zohran Mamdani

Ever since Donald Trump took office, federal judges have undertaken a concerted effort to suspend the power of the Executive Branch, unlike anything else that&#8217;s ever happened in this country. The words &#8220;judicial coup&#8221; do not begin to describe what&#8217;s been going on. In every case — whether they&#8217;re blocking the Trump administration from deleting trans propaganda on federal websites, or from terminating federal employees, or from deploying the National Guard — these individual, unelected federal judges have determined that the president of the United States had somehow overstepped his authority under the Constitution. 
This is obviously an unsustainable situation. If judges are going to overturn every single significant decision the president makes, then the judges have effectively become president. Eventually, something has to give. That&#8217;s why a lot of commentators, myself included, have called on the White House to simply ignore these rulings. Other than impeaching and removing judges — which is impossible, given that Democrats have too many votes in the Senate — ignoring courts that go rogue seems like the only real option. Andrew Jackson did it before, and Donald Trump (who happens to be a big fan of Andrew Jackson) can do it again.
But there is actually one additional approach that the Trump administration could take, before we decide to simply do away with the court system altogether. And based on recent reports, it looks like the White House is seriously considering this particular route. I&#8217;m talking about invoking the Insurrection Act, the federal law that permits the president to federalize the National Guard and deploy U.S. troops for law enforcement purposes in U.S. cities.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1671-it-s-time-to-crush-the-leftist-insurrection-once-and-for-all?elementPosition=1&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-976065 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-768x128.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-1536x256.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1.jpg 1800w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
When the Insurrection Act is discussed in the press, of course, it&#8217;s described as the mother of all power grabs. Democrats pretend it hasn&#8217;t been invoked more than two dozen times in this country&#8217;s history, most recently to suppress the L.A. riots. They don&#8217;t want to talk about the fact that several presidents — including some of their heroes, like JFK and FDR — all invoked the law, mainly to enforce racial integration.
On the other side of the political spectrum, Republicans point out, correctly, that the Insurrection Act is necessary to put down lawlessness in cities like Portland and Chicago — lawlessness that&#8217;s reached almost comical levels of absurdity, as police supervisors have made it clear that their officers should not assist federal agents who are being actively attacked. 
Here&#8217;s audio from the Chicago police scanner, to give just one example. 
Dispatchers told officers not to assist federal agents who were being surrounded by a mob. Listen:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
PLAY THE TAPE.
STOP protecting criminals:
“They were requesting the police—we’re not sending.”
Not only did Chicago’s leaders refuse to send support to federal law enforcement officers in danger, now they’re lying about it.
Disgusting. <a href="https://t.co/7hz1dZOv1B">pic.twitter.com/7hz1dZOv1B</a>
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) <a href="https://twitter.com/DHSgov/status/1975623141725474964?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Credit: @DHSgov/X.com
“They were requesting the police—we’re not sending.” That&#8217;s the decision that&#8217;s been made by local law enforcement in Chicago (or, more accurately, by the Democrats who run the city). It is an admission — which they also put in writing, by the way — that local police are unable or unwilling to maintain law and order. That is, and has always been, a valid justification for invoking the Insurrection Act and sending in the U.S. military. I don&#8217;t need to recount all of the scenes of violence and anarchy because you&#8217;ve probably seen hours of it at this point.
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🚨 JUST IN: COUNTLESS anti-ICE “protestors” have now taken over the streets of Chicago
Maybe CHICAGO should be the next city I visit to expose 🤔 <a href="https://t.co/ucucexyOSq">pic.twitter.com/ucucexyOSq</a>
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) <a href="https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/1976095784169836607?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
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ICE officers are being shot at. They&#8217;re being ambushed on the streets, run off the road, boxed in, pelted with objects, and so on. Rioters are blocking federal vehicles on the roadways. Mobs are parading through the streets, preventing people from going where they need to be. The mayor of Chicago, meanwhile, is establishing &#8220;ICE-free-zones,&#8221; in a clear effort to interfere with federal law enforcement:
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🚨 Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson just announced he signed an executive order creating &#8220;ICE Free Zones&#8221; to ban ICE agents from city property.
This is SICK. He is aiding and abetting criminal illegal immigrant killers, rapists, traffickers, and gang bangers. <a href="https://t.co/LaMbxaqePP">pic.twitter.com/LaMbxaqePP</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1975210976728518974?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Credit: @RapidResponse47/X.com
The red line has always been: state and local governments can decide not to actively assist federal officials, but they can&#8217;t decide to actively interfere with federal officials, either. That&#8217;s how federalism works. It&#8217;s how our whole constitutional system works. But the city of Chicago, and many other cities, have decided to break this covenant. They aren&#8217;t hiding their intentions. As a result, no reasonable person can deny what&#8217;s happening or that the Insurrection Act is the only available remedy to stop the mayhem, as many conservatives have said.
But there is one other major benefit of invoking the Insurrection Act, which a lot of people aren&#8217;t talking about. It would finally force federal judges to openly declare their rebellion against the Executive Branch. The Chicago Police Department has just explicitly declared its own rebellion, as you just heard. And if a single federal judge tries to stand in the way of Donald Trump&#8217;s invocation of the Insurrection Act, then the judiciary would be doing the exact same thing. The judges couldn&#8217;t hide behind legalese or strained interpretations of the law in order to justify their fraudulent decisions. If they attempt to overturn Donald Trump&#8217;s use of the Insurrection Act, the only way they can do it is by admitting that they&#8217;re waging open warfare on a duly elected branch of government.
Here&#8217;s why. The Insurrection Act, by design, leaves no room for judges or lawmakers to intervene. The law is based on the president&#8217;s constitutional authority to act as commander-in-chief of the military, as well as his responsibility to ensure domestic security. 
Article 1, <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S8-C15-1/ALDE_00001077/">Section 8</a> of the Constitution states, &#8220;[The Congress shall have Power . . . ] To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.&#8221; 
And with the Insurrection Act, Congress awarded the president the unilateral authority to decide when an insurrection exists, and how to deal with it. 
You can <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/subtitle-A/part-I/chapter-13">pull up the law</a> and read it for yourself. Here&#8217;s the relevant portion.
<blockquote>Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion.</blockquote>
That&#8217;s it. There are no qualifiers. There&#8217;s no provision that the president&#8217;s declaration of insurrection has to be &#8220;reasonable&#8221; in the eyes of Congress, or anyone else. There&#8217;s no provision that puts a time limit on the president&#8217;s authority. There isn&#8217;t even a definition of the word &#8220;insurrection.&#8221; It&#8217;s completely up to the president.
If you&#8217;re a blue-haired professor at Berkeley Law School, you might hyperventilate about this. Surely, you might say, there have to be &#8220;checks and balances&#8221; somewhere. But actually, no, there don&#8217;t have to be checks and balances. At some point, one branch of government has to be supreme over the others. There&#8217;s no way to avoid that. It&#8217;s as inevitable as the laws of physics. And the Founders understood that. Yes, they created an intricate system of government, in which the three branches of government serve as a &#8220;check&#8221; on each other&#8217;s power. That&#8217;s the ideal situation. That&#8217;s how things should work. But the Founders also understood that, if things break down, and one branch of government decides to &#8220;check&#8221; another branch into oblivion in an attempt to destroy the entire country and our democratic system of government, then there has to be a failsafe. There has to be a &#8220;break glass in case of emergency&#8221; type of safeguard. And the Insurrection Act — which again, is based very closely on the Constitutional text — is that safeguard. The Insurrection Act says, if things get really, really bad, then the elected president of the United States — who has more of a democratic mandate than any court, or any lawmaker in Congress — can use the military to restore order.
To be clear, undoubtedly, Left-wing judges would try to issue injunctions anyway. I&#8217;m not denying that. But the point is that, like the Chicago police department, they&#8217;d have to be very, very transparent about what they were doing. The Insurrection Act doesn&#8217;t give them any room to weasel out of it. They&#8217;d have to state, essentially, that they don&#8217;t care about the Constitution, or laws passed by Congress, and that they&#8217;re declaring open warfare against the Executive Branch.
Additionally, many of these judges — and all of the Left — are on the record already stating that January 6 was an &#8220;insurrection.&#8221; Several courts, including the Supreme Court of the state of Colorado, attempted to kick Trump off the ballot in the last election, on the theory that he had committed an &#8220;insurrection.&#8221; So they&#8217;ve already gone out of their way to declare, in no uncertain terms, that a group of old ladies wandering around the Capitol for a few hours constitutes an &#8220;insurrection.&#8221; Their standard is that, if a few windows are broken, and someone sits on Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s desk and steals her lectern, then an &#8220;insurrection&#8221; has taken place.
If that&#8217;s the standard, then there is no conceivable way, morally or logically, to argue that cities like Portland, Chicago, and Los Angeles aren&#8217;t in a state of open insurrection against the United States. If a mob loitering inside the Capitol for a few hours counts as an &#8220;insurrection,&#8221; then coordinated and violent attacks on law enforcement, endorsed by state and local officials, certainly qualify as well. They have boxed themselves into this corner. There&#8217;s no way around it. 
That&#8217;s why the arguments from the Left are growing increasingly frantic and incoherent. On social media at the moment, various left-wing figures are doing their best to stoke outrage because they suspect a declaration of insurrection is coming. 
Here&#8217;s Robert Reich, for example. Watch:
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Trump wants to invoke the Insurrection Act to punish anyone who opposes him, and he’s following a four point plan to do it.
Here’s what you need to know about it — and some thoughts on how to respond. <a href="https://t.co/QZZOSM4aON">pic.twitter.com/QZZOSM4aON</a>
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) <a href="https://twitter.com/RBReich/status/1976053389143179695?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
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This is what their argument is going to be. They&#8217;re claiming that Trump wants to round up his political opponents and anyone else he doesn&#8217;t like. Of course, that&#8217;s precisely what Joe Biden&#8217;s administration did. They jailed every Trump aide — and ultimately Trump himself — in order to prevent a democratic election from taking place. And Joe Biden didn&#8217;t need the Insurrection Act to do any of that.
What people like Robert Reich won&#8217;t do, even though it would solve the whole problem, is admit what they&#8217;re really interested in. In the first Trump administration, the argument from the Left was that he &#8220;put kids in cages&#8221; and &#8220;separated families&#8221; or whatever. That argument never made any sense — families are separated all the time when the parents commit crimes — but it&#8217;s what they went with. This time around, their argument is even more tenuous. They&#8217;re saying that ICE agents are the modern-day Gestapo because they&#8217;re rounding up illegal aliens while wearing masks and making lawful arrests in public places. They say ICE is arresting &#8220;American citizens,&#8221; even though there isn&#8217;t a single case of ICE deporting an actual American citizen, anywhere. (There is a case of an illegal alien taking her children with her, as she was deported, which is obviously a completely different scenario.)
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What&#8217;s really going on here, although no one on the Left wants to say it, is that the Democrat Party demands open borders. They do not want any federal immigration enforcement of any kind. That is their platform. But they never say it out loud, explicitly, because they understand how unconvincing and unpopular it is. So Leftist judges hide behind various legalese, while Democrat activists make outlandish claims with no basis in fact. That&#8217;s what they&#8217;re forced to do. That&#8217;s what&#8217;s been happening for the last 10 months.
As a result, we have arrived at the absolute limit of &#8220;checks and balances&#8221; in our system of government. And if the courts and local governments want to keep pushing things, they will rapidly find out that, under our Constitution, they will lose any one-on-one battle with the Executive Branch. That is how our Constitution was structured. It&#8217;s how the Insurrection Act was structured. In an ideal situation, of course, this failsafe wouldn&#8217;t be necessary. We shouldn&#8217;t have to rely on a final line of defense like this. But at the moment, we do. Democrats are daring the administration to invoke the constitutional response to their lawlessness and depravity. In response, the administration has no other choice but to follow the guidance of the Founders and send in the military to quell an insurrection that has rapidly spiraled out of control.

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