The law backs ‘noble’ Trump in sending the National Guard to Chicago — and other cities, too

 Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson are in court this week, trying to keep President Donald Trump from enforcing federal law.

Calling last weekend’s mob violence against immigration officials a “flimsy pretext,” they claim the president has no right to send National Guard troops to the Windy City to restore order.

Follow this closely, New Yorkers and residents of crime-ridden blue cities everywhere. 

This isn’t just about Chicago. It’s about your city, too.

For months Trump has vowed to “make our cities very, very safe” — and the Illinois lawsuit claims that’s the real reason he’s sending the Guard to Chicago: to ”fight crime,” not to protect federal buildings and personnel.

Horrors! What would be wrong with fighting crime?

The lawsuit claims “neither the Constitution nor any Act of Congress permits” the president to deploy the National Guard for “routine law enforcement, such as protest management or the suppression of violent crime or property damage.”

Sorry, but that’s false.

Check out the Insurrection Act, which Trump cited Monday. 

“It’s really up to the president to decide when to use the armed forces as a domestic police force” under the Insurrection Act, says Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Center for Justice.

The law can be used “in practically any situation where the president thinks it needs to be used,” adds Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor.  

Of course, they and other leftists want to reduce that authority now that Trump is president.

Democrats, led by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Alex Padilla (Calif.) and Adam Schiff (Calif.), are pushing a law to reduce a president’s power to use troops domestically under the Insurrection Act, even when the rights of citizens are in danger.

That means now.

Your constitutional right to come and go freely is destroyed if you fear being shot leaving home — a daily concern in some Chicago neighborhoods.

Retailers’ property rights are eviscerated when shoplifters aren’t prosecuted — as we see here in New York and elsewhere.   

As of January, Illinois law requires convicted criminals to be called “justice impacted individuals,” not offenders or felons.

Hard to know whether to laugh or cry.

When cities controlled by left-wing pols cater to the criminals, someone needs to secure the rights of the law-abiding public.

That’s where the Insurrection Act comes in.

It has a noble past: It was used by Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy to protect the constitutional rights of African Americans and end school segregation in the South.

On the other hand, Pritzker is citing an ignoble law, the Posse Comitatus Act, to challenge Trump.

Posse Comitatus was enacted in 1878 to prevent the president from using federal troops to shield newly freed slaves from terror and abuse in the South. 

Shame on Pritzker’s team for resurrecting that evil history.

Pritzker and Johnson’s lawsuit also ignores the very real threats federal immigration officials are facing.

Last week ICE agents were surrounded and menaced by angry mobs, and local police were told to stand down rather than rescue them.

Nothing flimsy about their need for protection.

Pritzker calls the National Guard deployment “an invasion.” 

But these men and women are our neighbors and fellow Americans — and the governor would never use the “i word” to describe the way foreigners, including gang members, have surged across the southern border.

Federal District Court Judge April Perry, a Biden appointee, refused to halt Trump’s deployment Monday.

She’s scheduled a Thursday hearing on Illinois’ request for a temporary restraining order against the president.

Perry should keep in mind that the Supreme Court has barred courts from second-guessing the president’s domestic use of troops.  

“We are all of the opinion that the decision . . . belongs exclusively to the President,” Justice Joseph Story wrote for the Court in the 1827 case Martin v. Mott.

He is the “sole and exclusive judge,” Story affirmed.  

If Perry rules that Trump erred in sending troops, she will be overturned on appeal.

Leftist law professors analyzing Illinois’ complaint are conveniently forgetting Martin v. Mott, suggesting instead that precedents applying to all other presidents don’t apply to Trump.  Ridiculous.

So while Judge Perry likely won’t dwell on Pritzker’s argument that Trump is really coming to Chicago to fight crime, it’s time for the nation to consider that option.

That, or voters should start electing urban leaders who tackle crime, rather than pander to criminals.

The risk of being gunned down and killed in Chicago is about three times higher than in Los Angeles, according to FBI data.

And some smaller cities, like Indianapolis and Louisville, have gun homicide rates that are higher still.

New York City is fortunate to have Jessica Tisch at the helm of the NYPD.

She has made it clear the Guard is not needed here: Shootings are at an all-time low, and robberies, burglaries and felony assaults are all trending down.

But Zohran Mamdani, a defund-the-police zealot, is leading in the mayor’s race.

If Mamdani wins and unleashes criminal bedlam, expect law-abiding New Yorkers to seek any protection they can get.  

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and co-founder of SAVENYC.org.

https://nypost.com/2025/10/08/opinion/law-backs-noble-trump-in-sending-national-guard-to-chicago/

Deadly Palisades Fire set ‘maliciously’ by Florida firebug, feds say

 A 29-year-old Biden-supporting Uber driver obsessed with dystopian imagery, “despair and bitterness” is charged with “maliciously” sparking the Palisades Fire, authorities said Wednesday — nine months after the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles history erupted.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, is accused of setting a brush fire Jan. 1 that was put out, but then smoldered unnoticed underground for days before igniting the raging Palisades inferno, which left 12 people dead and caused about $150 billion in damages.

The Palisades blaze, which was sparked by the Lachman Fire, went on to level more than 6,000 homes and buildings in the wealthy coastal enclave. 

9

This undated photo provided by the US Attorney’s Office shows Jonathan Rinderknecht, a suspect in the Palisades Fire.via REUTERS

9

The Palisades Fire ravages a neighborhood amid high winds in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.AP

Rinderknecht, who lived in the area at some point, allegedly ignited the flames near a popular hiking trail in the hillside of a state park overlooking the neighborhood at about 12:12 a.m. on New Year’s Day – just moments after dropping off his Uber passengers. 

The passengers later recalled Rinderknecht appearing “agitated and angry,” the feds said.

9

A home burns during the Palisades Fire on January 8, 2025.AFP via Getty Images

9

Burned beachfront homes in Malibu, with debris lining the road and beach in January.Getty Images

After arriving at the hiking trail, Rinderknecht allegedly filmed the scene on his phone and listened to the rap song “Un Zder, Un The,” by French artist Josman, whose music video features him setting a series of blazes, the criminal complaint states.

Google records showed that Rinderknecht, born in France, had listened to the song nine times and watched the music video four times in the days leading up to the fire, according to court papers. 

Translated lyrics from the French song include, “Daily life is killing me,” “I feel like I’m nowhere,” and “too much bitterness in my head, I think about the mistakes we made.”

In the 2018 music video, Josman is seen smoking a blunt in his kitchen, which then sparks a blaze throughout the apartment. 

At another point in the video, Josman is seen lighting a burning barrel outside a housing project, which becomes a huge inferno. The rapper is later captured walking with a handful of blazing banknotes in his hand.

9

Acting US Attorney Bill Essayli announcing the arrest of Palisades fire arson suspect Jonathan Rinderknecht alongside LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell (right) and Special Agent in Charge Kenny Cooper of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Los Angeles Field Division on Oct. 8, 2025.Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

Rinderknecht is believed to have watched his fire burn for about a minute before fleeing down the hiking trail, where he made a three-minute video recording of himself attempting to call 911 several times to report the blaze. 

As he was on the phone to dispatchers, he typed “Are you at fault if a fire is lift [sic] because of your cigarettes” into ChatGPT – which was also captured in the screen recording, the complaint charges.

Rinderknecht allegedly drove away from the scene but turned around to follow the responding fire trucks back to the scene – where he then watched and recorded several videos as crews battled the inferno, according to the complaint. 

“Based on my training and experience, arsonists sometimes call 911 to report the fires they have set, and arsonists sometimes like to watch firefighters respond to the fires that they have set,” an investigator notes in the charging docs.

9

The front page of the New York Post on January 9, 2025.

The videos were among a trove of evidence discovered on Rinderknecht’s phone in the aftermath of the wildfire, authorities said.    

Months before the blaze, in July, Rinderknecht had ChatGPT-generated a grim “dystopian” image of a burning city, according to the criminal complaint.

In the ChatGPT prompt, he requested: “A dystopian painting divided into distinct parts that blend together seamlessly. On the far left, there is a burning forest. Next to it, a crowd of people is running away from the fire, leading to the middle,” the complaint said.

Months later, in November, Rinderknecht told ChatGPT that he had “literally burnt” a Bible – boasting that he felt “amazing” and “so liberated” afterwards. 

The Palisades Fire erupted around the same time as the Eaton Fire, which killed 19 people, but authorities haven’t yet disclosed a cause for that inferno.

Both fires crippled the region for weeks – reducing entire neighborhoods to ash.

9

Evidence showed an image Rinderknecht generated on ChatGPT depicting a “dystopian” image of a burning city.US Attorney's Office

Rinderknecht was interviewed by investigators shortly after the blaze but allegedly lied to investigators at the time about his location, according to the complaint.

During the Jan. 24 interview, Rinderknecht had told investigators where the fire began, which was information that hadn’t yet been made public and that he wouldn’t have known if he hadn’t witnessed it, the complaint said.

He allegedly lied about his location, claiming he was near the bottom of the hiking trail at the time, the feds said.

During the interview, Rinderknecht’s “carotid artery would pulsate and become visible” whenever he was asked about the fire – indicating he was “extremely anxious,” the docs state. 

The accused arsonist also confessed to bringing a lighter up the trail – and investigators later found a green BBQ-style lighter in his car’s glove compartment that matched photos taken at his home just days earlier, authorities alleged. 

9

A helicopter drops water as the Palisades Fire grows on January 11, 2025.AFP via Getty Images

He was finally arrested in Florida on Tuesday and will now be transferred back to California to stand trial. 

Records show Rinderknecht was registered to vote in Florida, though he never declared a political party, The Post discovered.

He did however donate $2 – a dollar days apart on two separate occasions in September 2020 – to Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Rinderknecht’s former Los Angeles neighbors told The Post that the accused firestarter used to live in a third floor apartment in The Villas on Sycamore, just one block north of bustling Hollywood Boulevard. 

They described him as polite, quiet, and someone who mostly kept to himself – leaving them stunned upon learning he was accused of causing such massive destruction. 

“Wow, that’s crazy,” Peter Cheng, 39, said in disbelief, adding that he used to live across the corridor from Rinderknecht.

9

The aftermath of the fire that shows a row of homes destroyed by the massive blaze.Getty Images

“He was actually a really nice guy. He was really quiet. I didn’t know what he did. He just kept to himself. He didn’t seem like an off kid at all. But sometimes when people are really quiet you have no idea what’s going on in their head.” 

Cheng noted that Rinderknecht was the only resident in the building with a keypad on their door – and mentioned that he drove a “normal four-door car.”

The new tenant living in the Rinderknecht’s old pad said he moved in back in August and still gets mail addressed to the accused firebug. 

Rinderknecht, who officials said has no criminal history, faces charges including malicious destruction by means of a fire.

The finding that the Palisades Fire was intentionally set could allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

Federal arson charges already carry harsh mandatory minimum sentences that range from five to 20 years, but are even stricter if it leads to injury or death.

A detention hearing is scheduled in US District Court in Orlando, Florida, Thursday morning.

https://nypost.com/2025/10/08/us-news/suspect-in-deadly-los-angeles-palisades-fire-arrested-law-enforcement-sources-say/