Trump announces he will send national guard to Memphis, with Chicago ‘probably next’ – live

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House Speaker Mike Johnson began a prayer vigil for far-right activist Charlie Kirk this evening saying that Americans across the country, including lawmakers gathered at the vigil, had been shaken by Kirk’s assassination.

“This has been a very difficult week in America,” Johsnon said. He called Kirk’s killing, “heinous political violence, an assassination.”

Johnson said he’d also encouraged young people to advance Kirk’s principles and his approach. “Charlie was a happy warrior,” Johnson said. “He never hated anyone.”

“Scripture reminds us that we should not be overcome by evil, but we should overcome evil with good. That is the legacy of Charlie Kirk,” he said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to host a prayer vigil for Charlie Kirk, the far-right political activist killed last week, shortly. We’ll bring you updates from that once it begins.

Donald Trump appeared unfamiliar with the name of Minnesota congresswoman Melissa Hortman, who was murdered in her home in January, during an Oval Office press conference today.

When asked why he did not order flags to be flown at half mast after her assassination, as he did after far-right political activist Charlie Kirk’s killing last week, Kirk said no one had asked him to.

Trump said that if Democratic Minnesota governor Tim Walz had made such a request, he might have granted it: “Had the governor asked me to do that, I would have done that gladly,” Trump said.

In fact, Trump refused to speak to Walz in January, saying it would be a “waste of time” and called Walz “whacked out” and “a mess”.

Congressman Greg Casar, a Democrat from Texas who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, denounced JD Vance’s commentary while hosting the late Charlie Kirk’s podcast today.

While hosting Kirk’s podcast, Vance said: “It is a statistical fact that most of the lunatics in American politics today are proud members of the far-Left.”

In a statement responding to those comments, Casar wrote: “This is craven, cynical, and very dangerous. Political violence is a crisis in this country -- which is why Americans deserve leaders who want to actually solve it, not weaponize it against their political opponents.”

The murder of Charlie Kirk was a heinous crime. The murder of Rep. Melissa Hortman was a heinous crime. The attack on Paul Pelosi was a heinous crime. January 6th was a heinous crime. Any politician who’s only concerned by one is playing politics with a genuine crisis.

For years, Donald Trump has wanted to weaponize the government against his political opponents. And by pardoning January 6th offenders, he has shown he does not care about preventing political violence. He cannot be allowed to use the horrible murder of Charlie Kirk as pretext to go after peaceful political opposition.”

Donald Trump answered other questions from reporters about various developing stories after announcing his decision to deploy the national guard to Memphis.

On Charlie Kirk’s assassin: Trump told reporters he did not know if the suspect had acted alone but that he appeared to have been radicalized “over the Internet”.

On antifa: Trump said he would favor labeling the “anti-fascist” movement as a domestic terrorist organization. “I would do that, 100%,” he said. “Antifa is terrible.”

On US strikes on a Venezuelan boat: “We have proof. All you have to do is look at the cargo that was spattered all over the ocean – big bags of cocaine and and fentanyl all over the place.”

On congresswoman Ilhan Omar: “I think she’s a disgraceful person. A loser. It’s amazing the way people vote. I know it’s people from her area, maybe of the world. They got here and they vote her in. It’s hard to believe. But I think she’s a disgusting person.”

On Charlie Kirk’s funeral: “I guess I’ll say a few words, I don’t know, but I guess I will,” Trump said. He predicted the far-right political activist would draw a full stadium to his Arizona funeral on Sunday.

On Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota state representative assassinated on 14 January: “I’m not familiar. The who?”

Trump announces he will send national guard to Memphis, with Chicago ‘probably next’

Donald Trump announced he will deploy the national guard to Memphis during an Oval Office ceremony attended by the Tennessee governor Bill Lee.

Last week, Trump said “Memphis is deeply troubled” and teased that he wanted to “fix that just like we did Washington”, referring to his decision to deploy national guard troops to Washington DC last month in an effort to “crack down” on crime in the nation’s capitol. Violent crime was already at a 30-year low in the city.

Lee has welcomed Trump’s offers of federal troops and thanked the president during today’s announcement.

Trump added that he is considering sending national guard troops to “Chicago probably next” and floated cities such as St Louis may be next. “We want to save these places,” he said.

“Chicago is a great city,” Trump added. “We’re going to make it great again very soon.”

Illinois’ Democratic governor, JB Pritzker, has vehemently opposed the idea of federal troops deploying to Chicago.

Memphis, Chicago and St Louis are among the cities with the largest percentage of Black residents in the United States.

Trump said law enforcement agents from agencies including the FBI, ATF, DEA, ICE and Homeland Security will join the national guard in Memphis.

My colleauge George Chidi conducted this helpful analysis of crime rates in cities Trump has named over the past month. Although Trump has called Chicago “the most dangerous city in the world”, crime in large cities in the aggregate is lower in states with Democratic leadership. While the four cities of populations larger than 100,000 with the highest murder rates in 2024 are in Republican states.

Here’s more:

The Senate’s Republican leader John Thune indicated that he hoped an agreement could be reached to stop a shutdown as soon as this week, while criticizing Democrats’ insistence on negotiating over health care cuts.

“We will be putting forward a clean resolution to ensure there is no reason for Democrats to oppose this bill and delay passage. My hope would be that we could get this done as soon as this week and then continue bipartisan work on appropriations bills,” he said. The bill would likely extend funding through mid-November, to allow lawmakers time to reach agreement on 12 appropriations bills to, in theory, keep the government funded through 2026.

He went on to accuse the Democrats of behaving irresponsibly by threatening a shutdown if their demands are not met: “Democrats seem to be looking to shut down the government. That’s right, at least a portion of their base seems eager to pick a fight with the Trump administration, and congressional Democrats, or at least congressional Democrat leadership, seem to be following along. I can’t imagine what Democrats think they’re going to gain from this. Do they think that hard working Americans are going to thank Democrats for shutting down the government?”

Speaking on the floor a few minutes later, the Senate’s Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer accused Thune and the GOP of refusing to negotiate on issues that will impact millions of Americans.

“We want to have a conversation with Donald Trump and Republicans about things we’ve been talking about for months, like health care, Medicaid, and the cost of living,” Schumer said. “And the American people know this. They know that if Donald Trump refuses to talk, even to talk about democrats, it’ll be him shutting things down. They know he needs to negotiate. They know he needs to compromise. He’s not a dictator, as much as he thinks he’d like to be.”

With Congress facing an end-of-the-month deadline to prevent a government shutdown, Donald Trump on Monday afternoon encouraged Republicans to pass spending legislation without Democratic votes after the minority party’s leaders announced they would not support any bill that does not address their healthcare priorities.

“Congressional Republicans, including Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson, are working on a short term ‘CLEAN’ extension of Government Funding to stop Cryin’ Chuck Schumer from shutting down the Government,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Democrats want the Government to shut down. Republicans want the Government to OPEN. Democrats love CRIME, Republicans make our Country SAFE — WE HATE CRIME. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION.”

He called on the GOP to pass a “Clean CR”, or continuing resolution, which is a shortterm government funding bill that would prevent a shutdown without making major changes to appropriations: “In times like these, Republicans have to stick TOGETHER to fight back against the Radical Left Democrat demands, and vote “YES!” on both Votes needed to pass a Clean CR this week out of the House of Representatives.”

Under pressure from their base to stand up to Trump using whatever leverage they have, top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries last week vowed not to vote for any bill unless it includes some concessions on healthcare. They were vague on what exactly they wanted, but pointed to looming increases in premiums for Affordable Care Act health plans and Medicaid cuts mandated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

While the GOP can get spending legislation through the House with a simple majority, Democrats can use the filibuster to block bills in the Senate, meaning the two sides almost certainly have to find a compromise to prevent a shutdown. Responding to Trump’s insistence that Republicans should go it alone, Jeffries said: “Donald Trump and House Republicans are destroying Medicaid and Medicare, healthcare premiums are skyrocketing, millions of Americans are losing coverage and hospitals, nursing homes and community-based health clinics are closing throughout the country. House Democrats will not support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the healthcare of the American people. That’s what this shutdown fight is all about, Mr. President.”

Summary

Today So Far

Thank you for joining our US politics coverage today so far. Here are the top headlines we’ve followed and are continuing to watch:

• JD Vance guest-hosted the late Charlie Kirk’s podcast today live from his office in the White House complex. Vance was joined by key conservative voices, and members of the Trump administration, including Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of policy and architect of the administration’s hardline immigration policy, press secretary Karoline Leavitt, chief of staff Susie Wiles and health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.

• In an interview on Fox News, the secretary of state Marco Rubio doubled down on the administration’s pledge to deny and revoke visas for anyone perceived to be celebrating the killing of Charlie Kirk.

• FBI director Kash Patel has said that DNA evidence found by investigators links the man accused of killing Kirk to the fatal attack despite his alleged refusal to cooperate with authorities after his arrest.

• Marco Rubio met Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem today. Rubio will travel to Qatar tomorrow.

• Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has said the commercial terms for a TikTok deal have been agreed upon between the US and China. The news comes just days before a deadline Donald Trump set for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer was set to expire. Trump is scheduled to speak with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Friday.

• Donald Trump has threatened to call a national emergency and federalize Washington DC after the city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, said its police would not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), whose agents have been taking suspects into custody and have been accused of racially profiling people in doing so.

• Maurene Comey, a former federal prosecutor who brought criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, has sued the Trump administration over her abrupt July firing, according to court records reviewed by Reuters.

In a post on his social media platform, Donald Trump said that the United States military struck a second Venezuelan boat early Monday morning.

Trump identified the ship as belonging to “positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility” and said the strike “occurred while these confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela were in International Waters transporting illegal narcotics (A DEADLY WEAPON POISONING AMERICANS!) headed to the U.S.”

Trump said three men had been killed in the strike and that no US forces were harmed.

Earlier this month, my colleague Tom Phillips reported on a similar strike that killed 11 people. Here’s more on that first strike:

Rubio says Netanyahu has full support of US over plans to destroy Hamas

in Jerusalem

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has put the Trump administration’s full support behind Benjamin Netanyahu in a visit to Jerusalem, saying Washington’s priorities were the liberation of Israeli hostages and the destruction of Hamas.

In public remarks standing alongside Netanyahu, Rubio did not mention the possibility of a ceasefire and did not repeat his earlier criticism of Israel for carrying out an airstrike last week in Doha, aimed at Hamas leaders the capital of another close US ally, Qatar.

The state department announced that Rubio would make a stop in Doha on Tuesday on his way to London, as the Trump administration seeks to limit the damage to US relations in the Gulf caused by the Israeli strike last Tuesday.

“At the end of the day, no matter what has happened or happens, the objective remains the same, and that is all 48 of those hostages, both living and deceased, need to be home. They need to be returned,” Rubio said.

“Hamas needs to cease to exist as an armed element that can threaten the peace and security of the region. And the people of Gaza deserve a better future. But that better future cannot begin until Hamas is eliminated.”

Benjamin Netanyahu and Marco Rubio meeting at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem. Photograph: Haim Tzach/GPO/EPA

Rubio warned that the intended recognition of Palestine by several US allies, including the UK, France, Canada, Belgium and Australia, would make peace less likely.

“It actually makes it harder to negotiate … because it emboldens these groups,” he said, referring to Hamas and other Palestinian militants. He added that the Trump administration had warned states preparing to recognize Palestine “there will be an Israeli counter reaction to those moves” – in what may have been a reference to a possible Israeli move to annex occupied areas of the West Bank.

Rubio refrained from commenting on the planned Israeli ground offensive on Gaza City. Before that offensive, the Israel Defense Forces have been destroying buildings across the city, and ordering its inhabitants to evacuate, drawing international condemnation.