US President Donald Trump has already sent troops onto the streets of Los Angeles and Washington, DC and has ordered them to Memphis as well as Chicago and Portland, threatening to invoke emergency powers to forward such efforts if the courts get in the way.
Trump -- who suggested last week that American cities be used as "training grounds" for US military forces -- exaggerated the scale of unrest in Los Angeles and crime in Washington to justify those deployments, and a judge suggested he did the same when it comes to Portland.
The troops from Texas were sent to Illinois as part of a mission to protect "federal functions, personnel, and property," the Pentagon official said on condition of anonymity, adding that the Guardsmen have been mobilized for an initial period of 60 days.
The troops were seen on Tuesday at a military facility in Elwood, southwest of Chicago.
The planned deployment of these forces has infuriated Democratic Governor JB Pritzker, who said they "should stay the hell out of Illinois," and that any deployment against his state government's wishes would amount to an "invasion."
Trump over the weekend authorized the deployment of 700 National Guard troops to Chicago, sparking a lawsuit by Illinois state officials who accused him of using US troops "to punish his political enemies."
- 'Untethered to the facts' -
"The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president's favor," the Illinois Attorney General and counsel for Chicago said.
But Judge April Perry, an appointee of Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, declined to issue an immediate temporary restraining order, instead scheduling a full hearing for Thursday.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has defended the plan to send troops to Chicago, claiming that the third-largest US city is "a war zone."
Trump has similarly taken aim at Portland, which like Chicago has seen surges of federal agents as part of the president's mass deportation drive, prompting protests outside immigration processing facilities. Trump asserted that it is "war-ravaged" and riddled with violent crime.
But in a Saturday court order temporarily blocking the deployment of troops to Oregon, US District Judge Karin Immergut wrote that "the President's determination was simply untethered to the facts."
Protests in Portland did not pose a "danger of rebellion" and "regular law enforcement forces" could handle such incidents, the judge wrote.
Trump responded to that setback by openly mulling the use of the Insurrection Act -- which allows the president to deploy the military within the United States to suppress rebellion -- in order to send more troops into Democratic-led US cities.
"We have an Insurrection Act for a reason," Trump said, adding that he would use it if "people were being killed and courts were holding us up or governors or mayors were holding us up."
No peace: Trump's smoldering Nobel obsession
Washington (AFP) Oct 8, 2025 -
Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact that he is obsessed with winning the Nobel Peace Prize. But so far the award has eluded him throughout his two US presidencies.
Trump's push for the prize, whose 2025 winner will be named on Friday, is fueled by a potent mix of a desire for prestige and a long rivalry with former president Barack Obama.
Sometimes Trump, who is often better known for his divisive rhetoric, anti-migration drive and embrace of foreign authoritarians, has appeared to acknowledge that he is an unlikely candidate.
"Will you get the Nobel Prize? Absolutely not. They'll give it to some guy that didn't do a damn thing," Trump said during a speech to hundreds of the US military's top officers in September.
But in the same breath Trump revealed his true feelings.
"It'd be a big insult to our country, I will tell you that. I don't want it, I want the country to get it. It should get it because there's never been anything like it," he said at the same gathering.
- 'Seven wars' -
As the Norwegian committee's announcement has drawn nearer, the steady drumbeat of Trump's campaigning for the peace prize has intensified to unprecedented levels.
In recent weeks, barely a public event has gone by without Trump bragging about what he says is his role in ending seven wars.
Trump's administration recently listed them as being between Cambodia and Thailand; Kosovo and Serbia; the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda; Pakistan and India; Israel and Iran; Egypt and Ethiopia; and Armenia and Azerbaijan.
But while Trump has been quick to claim credit for some -- for example announcing a ceasefire between nuclear-armed Delhi and Islamabad in May -- many of the claims are partial or inaccurate.
Trump has even bombed one of the countries he mentions. He ordered US military strikes on Iran's nuclear program in June.
But perhaps the biggest issue is that the two main wars that Trump promised to end within days of his inauguration -- in Gaza and Ukraine -- are still raging.
His push for a deal between US ally Israel and Hamas to end the brutal two-year war in Gaza has reached a climax just days before the Nobel announcement -- but is almost certainly too late to sway the committee.
Foreign leaders seeking to curry favor with Trump have been quick to talk up Trump's chances.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nominated Trump for the prize, as did an Israeli advocacy group campaigning for the release of hostages in Gaza.
Pakistan also nominated Trump while the leaders of several African countries paid tribute to his supposed peacemaking efforts in a visit earlier this year.
- Obama rivalry -
But while Trump wants international recognition as "peacemaker-in-chief," there is another driving factor.
Since the beginning of his presidential ambitions 10 years ago, "he has put himself in opposition to Barack Obama, who famously won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009," Garret Martin, a professor of international relations at American University, told AFP.
The prize awarded to the Democratic former president, barely nine months after he took office, sparked heated debate -- and continues to annoy Republican Trump.
"If I were named Obama I would have had the Nobel Prize given to me in 10 seconds," Trump complained in October 2024, during the final stretch of the presidential campaign.
Three other US presidents have also won the award: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jimmy Carter, although Carter won his decades after his presidency for his subsequent peace efforts.
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