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      The week in Trump absurdities: from Turkey’s ‘rigged elections’ to ‘your countries are going to hell’

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      In Donald Trump’s world there are weeks and then there are weeks. This one was a doozy. From declaring war on Tylenol to an escape with an escalator, Trump surpassed himself with his gaffes, outlandish statements and unhinged stunts – many of which involve decisions with real world consequences.This was the week in the theatre of the politically absurd:Saturday“Pam”, Trump wrote on social media, addressing Pam Bondi, the attorney general. The president demanded that Bondi pursue legal action against political adversaries including James Comey, a former FBI Director, and Letitia James, the New York attorney general, whose name he misspelled as “Leticia”.Pronouncing them “all guilty as hell”, Trump insisted: “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility.” But the president deleted his Truth Social post about an hour later, prompting speculation that he had been trying to send Bondi a direct message but hit the wrong button.SundaySpeaking at a memorial service for the killed rightwing activist Charlie Kirk, Trump delivered a message that stood in stark contrast to the event’s prevailing theme of reconciliation.The president recalled that Kirk had said he wanted his ideological opponents to know he loved them. “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie,” he said. “I hate my opponents and I don’t want the best for them, I’m sorry.”In another jarring moment during a singing of America the Beautiful, Trump performed a little dance as he stood beside Kirk’s grieving widow, Erika.MondayTrump directed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue new guidance advising pregnant women to avoid acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, citing an unproven link to autism.But “acetaminophen” proved tough to pronounce. “Effective immediately, the FDA will be notifying physicians that the use of aceta – well, let’s see how we say that,” Trump said. “Acetam – enophin. Acetaminophen. Is that OK? Which is basically commonly known as Tylenol.”Pregnant women with a high fever should consult their doctors about taking a small dose, the president added. “If you can’t tough it out, if you can’t do it, that’s what you’re going to have to do. You’ll take a Tylenol, but it’ll be very sparingly. I think you shouldn’t take it.”A link between Tylenol and autism has not been established. Health experts pointed to a Swedish study published last year that tracked 2.4m births and found no evidence of an association between prenatal exposure to the drug and autism.TuesdayA decade after he descended a Trump Tower escalator to announce his run for president, Trump was stopped in his tracks at the UN headquarters in New York. He and his wife, Melania, had just stepped on an escalator when it abruptly stopped.In his address to the UN general assembly, Trump falsely claimed that he “ended seven wars” and bitterly complained that he never received a phone call from UN leaders. “All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that, on the way up, stopped right in the middle. If the first lady wasn’t in great shape, she would have fallen, but she’s in great shape. We’re both in good shape.”He added: “These are the two things I got from the United Nations, a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter. Thank you very much.”Trump also used the global stage to boast of US glory and chastise world leaders: “It’s time to end the failed experiment of open borders. You have to end it now. It’s – I can tell you. I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell.”WednesdayEscalator-gate escalated further. In a 357-word social media screed, Trump alleged: “A REAL DISGRACE took place at the United Nations yesterday – Not one, not two, but three very sinister events! This wasn’t a coincidence, this was triple sabotage at the UN. They ought to be ashamed of themselves.”The escalator “stopped on a dime”, he wrote, expressing relief that he and the first lady “didn’t fall forward onto the sharp edges of these steel steps, face first”. Then, when Trump took the podium, his teleprompter went “stone cold dark”, he added.Then, after being forced to ad lib part of his speech to the general assembly, he asked his wife how he had done and she replied: “I couldn’t hear a word you said.”Trump demanded an immediate investigation, adding: “All security tapes at the escalator should be saved, especially the emergency stop button. The Secret Service is involved. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”The UN said a videographer from the US delegation who ran ahead of Trump may have inadvertently triggered the stop mechanism at the top of the escalator, while the White House was responsible for the teleprompter.ThursdayTrump kicked off an Oval Office meeting with the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan by remarking: “We’ve been friends for a long time, actually, even for four years when I was in exile – unfairly, as it turns out. Rigged election.”Pointing at Erdoğan, he added: “He knows about rigged elections better than anybody.”During the meeting Trump also blamed the left for rising political violence, even though statistics show otherwise, and delivered a menacing warning: “I mean, bad things happen when they play these games and I give you a little clue: the right is a lot tougher than the left. But the right’s not doing this, they’re not doing it and they better not get them energised, because it won’t be good for the left.”Later, while signing executive orders, Trump veered off script to denounce Democratic congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, who is Black. “Is she any relation to the late, great Davy Crockett? I don’t think so. Let me tell you before you even ask. She’s a very low IQ person.”Meanwhile he added a presidential walk of fame to the White House, featuring portraits of his himself and his predecessors – except for one. Instead of Joe Biden’s portrait, Trump hung a photo of an autopen signing the Democratic president’s name.FridayFour days from a looming government shutdown, Trump went to see US golfers take on Europe in the Ryder Cup. “The team is not doing so well,” he explained. “So, when I heard that I said, ‘Let’s get on the plane. We have to fly and help them.’”Trump also circled back to baseless medical advice, repeating his plea for pregnant women to stop using Tylenol. He also called for the measles-mumps-rubella combination vaccine to be split into separate shots, and for children not to get the hepatitis B vaccine, normally given in the first 24 hours after birth, before the age of 12 years.In a Truth Social post, the president wrote: “Pregnant Women, DON’T USE TYLENOL UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, DON’T GIVE TYLENOL TO YOUR YOUNG CHILD FOR VIRTUALLY ANY REASON, BREAK UP THE MMR SHOT INTO THREE TOTALLY SEPARATE SHOTS (NOT MIXED!), TAKE CHICKEN P SHOT SEPARATELY, TAKE HEPATITAS B SHOT AT 12 YEARS OLD, OR OLDER, AND, IMPORTANTLY, TAKE VACCINE IN 5 SEPARATE MEDICAL VISITS!”The advice from Trump goes against that of medical societies, which cite data from numerous studies and decades of practice. More

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      Trump news at a glance: Trump orders deployment of national guard to ‘war ravaged’ Portland

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      Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of the national guard to Portland, Oregon, authorizing “full force, if necessary”, ignoring calls from local and state officials who say the president has been misinformed about the scale of a protest outside a federal immigration office.The president says that he has directed all necessary troops to be deployed to protect “war ravaged Portland”, claiming that immigration facilities were “under siege from attack by Antifa and other domestic terrorists”.Officials in Portland have pushed back against the decision and rejected the president’s characterization.“There is no insurrection. There is no threat to national security and there is no need for military troops in our major city,” said Oregon’s Democratic governor, Tina Kotek.Here are the key stories at a glance.Donald Trump says he is deploying troops to Portland, OregonDonald Trump made the announcement on social media, where he claimed that the deployment was necessary “to protect war ravaged Portland,” and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facilities he said were “under siege by antifascists and other domestic terrorists”.Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, rejected the president’s characterization. “In my conversations directly with President Trump and secretary [of homeland security, Kristi] Noem, I have been abundantly clear that Portland and the state of Oregon believe in the rule of law and can manage our own local public safety needs,” Kotek said at a news conference in Portland on Saturday.Read the full storyPortland residents scoff at Trump threat to send military: ‘This is not a war zone’A visit to downtown Portland on Saturday, hours after Donald Trump falsely declared the city “war ravaged” to justify the deployment of federal troops, made it plain the US president’s impression of the city, apparently shaped by misleading conservative media reports, is entirely divorced from reality.There were just four protesters outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) field office in an outlying residential neighborhood that the president had claimed was “under siege” by antifascists and “other domestic terrorists”.Read the full storyTrump fires US attorney who told border agents to follow law on immigration raidsDonald Trump fired a top federal prosecutor in Sacramento just hours after she warned immigration agents they could not indiscriminately detain people in her district, according to documents reviewed by the New York Times.Michele Beckwith, who became the acting US attorney in Sacramento in January, received an email at 4.31pm on 15 July notifying her that the president had ordered her termination.Read the full story‘Hell on earth’: immigrants held in new California detention facility beg for helpImmigrants locked up in California’s newest federal detention center have described the facility as a “a torture chamber”, “a zoo” and “hell on earth”, saying they were confined in filthy cells and suffered medical crises without help.Six people detained at the California City detention center, which opened in late August and is now the state’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention center, shared accounts with the Guardian of poor conditions and alleged mistreatment by staff.Read the full storyUS military brass brace for firings as Pentagon chief orders top-level meetingUS military officials are reportedly bracing for possible firings or demotions after the Trump administration’s Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, abruptly summoned hundreds of generals and admirals from around the world to attend a gathering in Virginia in the upcoming days.The event, scheduled for Tuesday at Marine Corps University in Quantico, is expected to feature a short address by Hegseth focused on military standards and the “warrior ethos”, according to the Washington Post.Read the full storyFBI arrest man who allegedly threatened to shoot people at Texas Pride paradeFederal authorities in Texas have arrested a man for allegedly threatening to shoot people at a pro-LGBTQ+ parade, to avenge the murder of Charlie Kirk.According to court documents viewed by the Guardian, on 18 September, the FBI’s field office in Dallas was notified by Abilene, Texas, police about online threats from a local resident.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      Northwestern University students blocked from enrolment after refusing controversial antisemitism training.

      ‘Free speech for me, not for thee’: how Trump’s censorship blitz is splitting the right.

      Trump is flaunting his corruption. Is it changing what the US thinks of scandal? The Guardian’s David Smith on Trump’s brazen approach to the presidency.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened 26 September 2025. More

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      Portland residents scoff at Trump threat to send military: ‘This is not a war zone’

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      A visit to downtown Portland, Oregon, on Saturday, hours after Donald Trump falsely declared the city “war ravaged” to justify the deployment of federal troops, made it plain the US president’s impression of the city, apparently shaped by misleading conservative media reports, is entirely divorced from reality.There were just four protesters outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) field office in an outlying residential neighborhood that the president had claimed was “under siege” by antifascists and “other domestic terrorists”. Jack Dickinson, 26, wore a chicken costume draped in an American flag and held a sign that read “Portland Will Outlive Him”. Passing motorists honked in appreciation.Dickinson, who is from Portland and has helped organize the small but persistent protest at that location, which is going on three months, said he was not surprised to see Trump focus his attention on the city. But he called the president’s threat to have soldiers use “full force” against the protesters, whose numbers occasionally swell into the dozens, unwarranted.“There’s no justification, no reason for the national guard or military to be using ‘full force’ on people,” Dickinson said, “but they have this narrative about Portland that’s been helped by selectively edited videos to set themselves up for a crackdown.”The Ice field office, which the city of Portland recently accused the agency of illegally using for detentions, is also attractive to protesters because it sits directly next to a Tesla dealership. Another protester held up a sign that read “Tesla Funds Fascism/Stop Buying Teslas”.A third protester, a young man who goes by the nickname Burrito, said that he was “protesting them wrongfully kidnapping random individuals based on their skin color”.He also rejected the president’s characterization of the city and of the anti-Ice protesters. “This is not a war zone and it’s disgusting the way that he talks about us,” he said.The activist said that the point of the protests was to frustrate and wear out the federal agents, who, he said, have been responsible for any violence that has taken place: “As the day progresses, we get more numbers, they start to show more force and our people come out. It’s just a matter of how they escalate things, because they are the escalators, not like the one that Trump took that doesn’t work.”The number of protesters was vastly smaller than the number of people in nearby coffee shops and restaurants, where Portlanders went about their usual weekend business, joking about life during wartime.The city’s downtown blocks, which were the scene of mass protests in 2020, first against racist policing and then against Trump’s deployment of federal agents to guard a courthouse, were similarly placid.View image in fullscreenThe only person on the sidewalk outside the federal courthouse was a street sweeper, wearing a neon-green vest with the words “Clean & Safe” on the back. The fence that surrounded the building five years ago had long since been removed, as had the plywood boards that covered the windows of the adjacent police headquarters, where thousands of racial justice protesters rallied after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.There was also no sign of activity at the nearby Edith Green federal building, with its distinctive facade clad in vegetated screens, one day after a local TV reporter recorded the arrival of a convoy that included masked federal agents in an armored homeland security truck.By contrast, the nearby Portland farmers’ market was packed with residents and tourists buying produce and eating acaí bowls from a thriving local business started by a yoga and meditation teacher.On social media, Portlanders continued to mock Trump’s false claims about the city as they have for weeks, by posting images of themselves enjoying life in the city with audio of the president saying, earlier this month, that it is “like living in Hell”. More

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      Trump is flaunting his corruption. Is it changing what the US thinks of scandal?

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      As the Watergate scandal unfolded, new editions of the Washington Post newspaper were rushed over to the White House at night so Richard Nixon, the president, could brace for each devastating revelation.Half a century later, Donald Trump does not seem to fear explosive front page headlines or shocking disclosures of malfeasance. Usually because he has written them himself.The US president’s determination to break from his predecessors includes a willingness to shout from the rooftops of misconduct past presidents would have strained every sinew to conceal.And the consequence, observers say, is that Trump’s brazen approach earns him perverse credit for authenticity and takes the sting out of scandals that used to be career-ending when uncovered by muckraking journalists.“This is a dangerous notion that, just because a president chooses to be corrupt in public openly, it’s OK,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “People say, well, if it were really corrupt, it would be hidden. It’s a false assumption, but many people have it. It’s a new theory of scandal.”Trump delivered one of his most blatant examples last weekend. In a social media post addressed directly to Pam Bondi, the attorney general, the president fumed over the lack of legal action against James Comey, the former FBI director, Adam Schiff, the California senator, and Letitia James, the New York attorney general.“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW,” he wrote, before deleting the message and posting another supportive of Bondi.It was a glaringly obvious effort to order the justice department to take action against his political opponents. On Thursday the agency followed through by charging Comey with false statements and obstruction over congressional testimony about the investigation into contacts between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.Democrats described it as “a disgraceful attack on the rule of law”, the latest in a series of moves that have threatened the justice department’s traditional independence. But Republicans, who five decades ago forced Nixon to resign over the Watergate burglary and ensuing cover-up, were mostly silent. There was no hint of impeaching Trump over what many saw as an impeachable offence.Richard Painter, a former chief White House ethics lawyer, said: “It’s what prosecutors do in dictatorships. They want to run up this Comey thing that has no merit to it. That’s what they do in Russia. You piss off Putin and end up in some gulag somewhere. That’s not, I thought, how we want to run our country.”If Trump’s shamelessness is one superpower, his ability to flood the zone is another. He has spent the past decade proving the thesis that while one crisis can topple a politician, a hundred crises are subject to the law of diminishing returns. “It’s Watergate, Every Day,” read a headline on the Bulwark website this week.In a 2005 conversation captured on an Access Hollywood tape released in 2016, he described his approach to women: “I just start kissing them … And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab ‘em by the pussy.”He has urged foreign governments to investigate political opponents. During a 2016 campaign rally, Trump said, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” referring to rival Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails. In 2019 he publicly called on China to target Joe Biden, saying: “China should start an investigation into the Bidens.”In a 2017 NBC News interview, Trump openly stated that he fired Comey because of “this Russia thing”, referring to an investigation into Russian election interference. This admission was cited in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report as potential evidence of obstruction of justice, yet Trump framed it as a decisive action rather than wrongdoing.Trump expressed no contrition over the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 but rather persisted with his false claim of a stolen election, hailed the rioters as patriots and issued a blanket pardon of them on his first day back in office.In May this year, the president said he will accept a $400m luxury plane from Qatar and use it as Air Force One, defending the arrangement as a “gesture of good faith” despite concerns that it could violate the US constitution’s emoluments clause. The Trump Organization, run by the president’s two oldest sons, struck a series of lucrative deals in the Middle East.The breaches have come so thick and fast that they have become unremarkable to a numbed, desensitised audience. Sabato commented: “It becomes background noise. If there’s bad news about a particular person or category of public policy then it’s less significant because you expect it. What’s Trump done today? Then you shrug your shoulders and have your third cup of coffee.”Kurt Bardella, a political commentator, agrees that “Trump being Trump” no longer has shock value, especially since he previewed many of his actions during the election campaign. “It’s normalised versus when someone acts completely out of character: ‘Whoa, where did that come from? I never would have expected that person to act this way.’”The lightning-paced news cycle makes it easy for Trump to move on from the scandal du jour, Bardella adds. “Watergate was so powerful, [Monica] Lewinsky was so powerful because it was a singular focus for an extended period of time. Now we consider a long news cycle something that lasts actually an entire week, whereas before a week was a blip on the radar.”Even so, Trump has faced a barrage of lawsuits, ethical complaints and demands for investigations. But Republicans control both chambers of Congress and have shown little appetite for imposing accountability. He has spent a decade purging critics from the party and reshaping it in his own image.Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, said: “The institutional structures that should be countervailing, that should be pushing up against this and saying: ‘Oh, this is terrible, he’s breaking the law’, are completely absent. They’ve been co-opted or taken over by the Republican party or the conservative supreme court.“There isn’t a counter voice to say to the American people this is not acceptable behaviour. I don’t think Trump gets credit for flooding the zone or that his strategy is particularly remarkable. It’s that he has neutered the Congress and bought off the supreme court. There isn’t anybody, literally, who can stop him.”View image in fullscreenTrump’s boasting about conduct that others would hide also strikes a particular chord with his Make America great again (Maga) support base. In an October 2016 presidential debate, when Hillary Clinton accused him of avoiding taxes for years, Trump responded defiantly: “That makes me smart.”In a subsequent episode of Saturday Night Live, the comedian Dave Chappelle argued that such moments humanised Trump: his blunt admission of gaming a rigged system made him relatable, not elitist. Chappelle said: “The reason he’s loved is because people in Ohio have never seen somebody like him. He’s what I call an honest liar.”Years later, that still holds with the Maga faithful. John Zogby, an author and pollster, observed: “For voters who want to rage against the machine, instead of being elected president and head of the machine, he’s the guy who feels he’s been put in place to both enforce and live the rage against the machine.“The very fact that he breaks all the rules so brazenly – takes foreign trips and makes personal business deals – adds to the appeal. He’s the baddest cowboy in town. He does and says what a lot of people wish that they could do and say and he gets away with it. With Donald Trump, the one piece of authenticity is he is exactly what he says he is.” More

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      FBI arrest man who allegedly threatened to shoot people at Texas Pride parade

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      Federal authorities in Texas have arrested a man for allegedly threatening to shoot people at a pro-LGBTQ+ parade, to avenge the murder of Charlie Kirk.According to court documents viewed by the Guardian, on 18 September, the FBI’s field office in Dallas was notified by Abilene, Texas, police about online threats from a local resident.The resident, identified as Joshua Cole, allegedly used a Facebook account under the name “Jay Dubya” where he “threatened to commit a shooting” at a Pride parade in Abilene on 20 September.“Fk their parade, I say we lock and load and pay them back for taking out Charlie Kirk,” Cole allegedly wrote, referring to the rightwing political activist, in one comment.Kirk was shot to death on 10 September at Utah Valley University (UVU).Citing investigators’ interviews with people close to the suspect in the case, Utah prosecutors have alleged Tyler Robinson killed Kirk after becoming sick of what he perceived to be Kirk’s “hatred”. Investigators reported being told by his family that Robinson had become “more pro-gay and trans rights oriented” in the year prior to Kirk’s killing.Another comment Cole allegedly posted about the Abilene Pride parade read: “Theres only like 30 of em we can send a clear message to the rest of them.” Invoking an insult used to demean LGBTQ+ people, Cole also allegedly wrote: “come on bro let’s go hunting fairies.”In a sworn affidavit, FBI special agent Sam Venuti wrote that investigators confirmed the “Jay Dubya” account belonged to Cole.Venuti said that he had attempted to contact Cole at his place of work, where he had been employed for the past year. But the employer said that Cole had “just quit” and had “stormed out of the facility in anger”, Venuti said.Co-workers reportedly described him as a “hot head”, according to Venuti’s affidavit.Not long after, local police, with Venuti present, conducted a traffic stop on Cole.When the agent told Cole that he wanted “to talk to him about his online activity”, Venuti wrote that “Cole then sighed and his body posture indicated that [he] knew the reason for our discussion”.Venuti’s affidavit added that Cole “did not appear surprised”.Cole was then detained. According to the FBI, Cole waived his rights against self-incrimination and – during questioning – reportedly admitted to owning a firearm, to operating the “Jay Dubya” Facebook account and to making the threatening posts.The affidavit states that Cole reportedly agreed that “a reasonable person could interpret his comments as a threat”. He also said he did “not believe that the gay pride event should be allowed” though denied “that he was going to take action or shoot parade participants”.Venuti concluded in the affidavit that Cole’s “threats were not conditional”.“The threats were specific,” Venuti wrote. “The threats were also specific to a particular set of victims: people participating in the gay pride parade.”Based on the evidence, the FBI agent wrote, he believed that there was probable cause to arrest Cole for violating a federal law that prohibits threatening communications.Cole could face up to five years in prison if convicted, according to the Cornell University law school’s Legal Information Institute.After being jailed, Cole appeared briefly at a preliminary hearing, where a judge ordered him to remain in custody pending further proceedings.An attorney listed for Cole did not immediately respond to a request for comment.On 26 September, the Abilene Pride Alliance issued a public statement about the incident.“We want to reassure our community that the safety of everyone at Pride has always been, and will continue to be our top priority,” they wrote. “The swift action and continued diligence of [authorities] reflect their commitment to protecting our city and ensuring that Pride remains a safe, inclusive and celebratory space for all.”The Trump administration – which has threatened to crack down on leftwing groups who opposed Kirk’s views – did not announce and has not commented publicly on Cole’s arrest. More

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      Donald Trump says he is deploying troops to Portland, Oregon

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      Donald Trump said on Saturday he is deploying troops to Portland, Oregon, “authorizing Full Force, if necessary”, ignoring pleas from local officials and the state’s congressional delegation, who suggested that the president was misinformed or lying about the nature and scale of a single, small protest outside one federal immigration enforcement office.Trump made the announcement on social media, using references to antifascists and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). He claimed that the deployment was necessary “to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists”.Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, rejected the president’s characterization. “There is no national security threat in Portland. Our communities are safe and calm,” she wrote on social media. “My office is reaching out to the White House and Homeland Security for more information. We have been provided no information on the reason or purpose of any military mission.”A visit by the Guardian to downtown Portland on Saturday morning confirmed that the city is placid, the farmers’ market was packed and the protest against immigration enforcement in an outlying residential neighborhood remained small. There were just four protesters on the sidewalk near the Ice field office Trump claimed was “under siege”. One, wearing a chicken costume and draped in an American flag, held up a sign that read: “Portland Will Outlive Him.” Passing motorists honked in appreciation.The White House did not provide details in connection with Trump’s announcement, including a timeline for the deployment or what troops would be involved.Portland’s mayor, Keith Wilson, said at a hastily assembled news conference on Friday night that the city had become aware of “a sudden influx of federal agents in our city. We did not ask for them to come. They are here without clear precedent or purpose.”“The President has sent agents here to create chaos and riots in Portland, to induce a reaction, to induce protests, to induce conflicts. His goal is to make Portland look like what he’s been describing it as,” Oregon’s junior senator, Jeff Merkley said. “He wants to induce a violent exchange. Let us not grant him that wish. Let us be the force of orderly, peaceful protest.”The senator also drew attention to video evidence from the local newspaper, the Oregonian, which showed federal agents using force against a small number of protesters outside the Ice facility, who remained peaceful.Although a spokesperson for the Oregon national guard told the Oregonian that no official request for troops had been made yet, convoys of dozens of federal agents, in marked and unmarked SUVs, were seen on Friday entering a federal building downtown and an Ice field office in a residential neighborhood that has been the scene of regular protests by dozens of protesters.“The President of the United States is directing his self-proclaimed ‘Secretary of War’ to unleash militarized federal forces in an American city he disagrees with,” Representative Maxine Dexter wrote in a social media statement on Saturday, referring in part to the Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth. “This is an egregious abuse of power and a betrayal of our most basic American values. Authoritarians rely on fear to divide us. Portland will not give them that.”Both of Oregon’s US senators and three of its House representatives had in recent days strongly rejected Trump’s claims about mass anarchy in the city as a fiction intended to justify the unnecessary deployment of federal troops as part of an “authoritarian” crackdown.Ron Wyden, the state’s senior Democratic senator, told reporters on Friday: “It’s important to recognize that the president’s argument is a fable – it does not resemble the truth.”“If he watches a TV show in the morning and he see Portland mentioned, he says it’s a terrible place,” Wyden added.During an Oval Office event on Thursday to announce that the administration intends to investigate and disrupt what it claims is “organized political violence” funded by leftwing groups, Trump made several wild claims about Portland, which was a center of racial justice protests in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. But life has long since returned to normal, and barriers around the federal courthouse and police headquarters downtown have been removed.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe president, however, apparently deceived by video of a handful of protesters gathered outside the Ice facility in a south-west Portland neighborhood broadcast by conservative outlets, insisted that the city has been in non-stop “anarchy” since 2020 and is barely livable.“Portland is, I don’t know how anybody lives there, it’s amazing. But it’s anarchy out there,” Trump said. The president then claimed, falsely, that most of the city’s retail stores had closed, due to arson attacks, and “the few shops that are open” were covered in plywood.Describing the small number of protesters who have gathered outside an Ice facility that has been illegally used for detentions in a residential neighborhood, Trump claimed, without evidence: “These are professional agitators, these are bad people and they’re paid a lot of money by rich people.“But we’re going to get out there and we’re gonna do a pretty big number on those people in Portland that are doing that.”Representative Suzanne Bonamici, an Oregon Democrat, said on Friday: “This proclaimed ‘war on Antifa’ is completely a fallacy. Antifa is an ideology, it is not a group, and so we’re extremely concerned with what he’s going to try to do with that pronouncement.”“Donald Trump does not care about safety. If he cared about safety he would not have released 1,600 convicted insurrectionists into the streets. He cares about control and authoritarianism,” she added, referring to Trump’s clemency for those who carried out the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden. “Portland does not need the military. We do not want them, we do not need them, we do not welcome them to come here under his orders.”Trump, a Republican, has sent military troops to the Democratic-controlled cities of Los Angeles and Washington DC so far in his second presidency. He has discussed doing the same in Memphis and New Orleans, which are also Democratic strongholds. More

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      US military brass brace for firings as Pentagon chief orders top-level meeting

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      US military officials are reportedly bracing for possible firings or demotions after the Trump administration’s Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, abruptly summoned hundreds of generals and admirals from around the world to attend a gathering in Virginia in the upcoming days.The event, scheduled for Tuesday at Marine Corps University in Quantico, is expected to feature a short address by Hegseth focused on military standards and the “warrior ethos”, according to the Washington Post.The order to attend the meeting, which has been described as unusual and unprecedented, was reportedly issued with little explanation – and prompted military personnel stationed overseas to have to make last-minute travel arrangements.The Pentagon has not disclosed details about the meeting or its agenda. But a senior Trump administration official told the New York Times on Friday that Hegseth intends to deliver a “rally the troops” message – and that one of the primary goals of the gathering is to “get our fighters excited” about the new posture of what was recently rebranded the Department of War.A White House official told CNN that the event is intended as a “show of force of what the new military now looks like” during Donald Trump’s second presidency.“It’s about getting the horses into the stable and whipping them into shape,” the military official familiar with the planning told CNN. “And the guys with the stars on their shoulders make for a better audience from an optics standpoint. This is a showcase for Hegseth to tell them: get on board, or potentially have your career shortened.”Hegseth’s team reportedly plans to record and publicly release the address later, according to CNN, which cited three of its sources.A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed the upcoming gathering to the Guardian, saying that Hegseth “will meet with his senior military leaders”, but did not provide any further details.According to the Times, the Pentagon informed congressional committees overseeing the military on Friday that Hegseth intends to use the gathering to share with “most senior service members his intent for the department”, including new guidance on “military fitness standards and several other areas of interest”.Sources cited by the Post say that Tuesday’s address will be the first of three short lectures by Hegseth. The second, the Post reported, will reportedly focus on the defense industrial base, and the third on deterrence.The meeting has reportedly stirred unease and anxiety among some military officers, especially given Hegseth’s efforts to reshape the Pentagon and his recent firings of several senior officers.In May, he ordered a 20% reduction in the number of four-star generals and admirals across the military and a 10% cut in the number of flag and general officers. And in recent months, he has dismissed more than a dozen senior military officials, according to the Times.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIn an interview on Thursday on MSNBC, retired army Lt Gen Mark Hertling described Tuesday’s planned gathering as highly unusual, adding that it was something he had “never seen before”.“There are a couple of reasons why he might be calling this meeting,” Hertling said. “It could be about a shifting national security strategy, or cuts to the general officer corps, which is something he has talked about several times – he’s floated it, to shrink the number of flag officers in the military. It could be a preparation for a potential budget stalemate next week, or it could be concerns over information leaks.”“Secretary Hegseth has fired 12 senior ranking general officers, so he could be firing more,” Hertling added. “Or is it performative theatre?”In a post on social media on Friday, Lt Gen Ben Hodges of the army compared Tuesday’s gathering to a 1935 “surprise assembly in Berlin” where German generals were “required to swear a personal oath to the Führer”, Adolf Hitler, in the lead-up to the Holocaust and the second world war.Hegseth, a former army national guard officer and ex-Fox News host, responded to Hodges by writing: “Cool story, General.” More

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      FBI fires agents who kneeled during 2020 racial justice protest

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      The FBI has fired agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington DC that followed the 2020 murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, three people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press on Friday.The bureau last spring had reassigned the agents but has since fired them, said the people, who insisted on anonymity to discuss personnel matters with the AP.The number of FBI employees terminated was not immediately clear, but two people said it was roughly 20.The photographs at issue showed a group of agents taking the knee during one of the demonstrations following the May 2020 killing of Floyd, a death that led to a national reckoning over policing and racial injustice and sparked widespread anger after millions of people saw video of the arrest. The kneeling had angered some in the FBI but was also understood as a possible de-escalation tactic during a period of protests.The FBI Agents Association confirmed in a statement late on Friday that more than a dozen agents had been fired, including military veterans with additional statutory protections, and condemned the move as unlawful. It called on Congress to investigate and said the firings were another indication of the FBI director Kash Patel’s disregard for the legal rights of bureau employees.“As Director Patel has repeatedly stated, nobody is above the law,” the agents association said. “But rather than providing these agents with fair treatment and due process, Patel chose to again violate the law by ignoring these agents’ constitutional and legal rights instead of following the requisite process.”An FBI spokesperson declined to comment on Friday.The firings come amid a broader personnel purge at the bureau as Patel works to reshape the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency.Five agents and top-level executives were known to have been summarily fired in August in a wave of ousters that current and former officials say has contributed to declining morale.One of those, Steve Jensen, helped oversee investigations into the attack on the US Capitol that Donald Trump supporters carried out on 6 January 2021 after his first presidency ended in defeat to Joe Biden. Another, Brian Driscoll, served as acting FBI director in the early days of Trump’s second presidency, which began in January, and resisted US justice department demands to supply the names of agents who investigated the Capitol attack.A third, Chris Meyer, was incorrectly rumored on social media to have participated in the investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. A fourth, Walter Giardina, participated in high-profile investigations like the one into Trump adviser Peter Navarro.A lawsuit filed by Jensen, Driscoll and another fired FBI supervisor, Spencer Evans, alleged that Patel communicated that he understood that it was “likely illegal” to fire agents based on cases they worked but was powerless to stop it because the White House and the justice department were determined to remove all agents who investigated Trump.Patel denied at a recent congressional hearing that he took orders from the White House on whom to fire and said anyone who had been dismissed failed to meet the FBI’s standards. More