Closing summary
This liveblog is now closing. You can read our full coverage of the Charlie Kirk shooting here. A summary from today:
More people are losing their jobs as a crackdown on speech deemed disrespectful towards Charlie Kirk continues. As Reuters reported this morning, at least 15 people have been either fired or suspended, due to commentary about Kirk, the rightwing activist and close Trump ally who was killed this week. Kirk supporters, including activists and US government officials, have engaged in online campaigns to track down people allegedly making light of Kirk’s death.
A congressional staffer in Mexico resigned following a social media campaign targeting him. The staffer had made comments that criticized Kirk this week during a Mexican television news program. The news network, Milenio, also published a public apology after the deputy secretary of state, Christopher Landau, threatened to revoke the visas of foreign nationals criticizing or making light of Kirk’s death.
On Friday in cities across the US, people gathered to pay tribute to Kirk.
And Erika Kirk, the widow of the rightwing provocateur, said on Friday evening that her late husband’s message and mission will be “stronger, bolder, louder and greater than ever” and that her “cries will echo around the world like a battle cry”.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post revealed today that the Trump administration has drafted a plan to send in national guard troops to major cities in Louisiana. This follows a trend by the administration of increasingly using the military for law enforcement and civilian matters. The Trump administration has been stepping up those militarization efforts in major cities across the US, with limited success.
More information has come out about the man killed on Friday in Illinois by federal immigration officials. Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, a resident of Franklin Park, Illinois, was shot and killed as officers attempted to arrest him. The Department of Homeland Security said Villegas-Gonzalez drove his car at the officers, injuring one of them. The consulate general of Mexico in Chicago confirmed Villegas was a cook from Mexico and said they were in touch with his family.
Trump administration reportedly has a plan to send national guard to Louisiana
The Trump administration has drafted a proposal to deploy 1,000 national guard troops to focus on law enforcement operations in Louisiana’s “urban centers”, the Washington Post reports.
The plan, from Pete Hegseth and addressed to the attorney general and the Department of Homeland Security, outlines a continuation of the Trump administration’s significant expansion of the military’s role in civilian matters.
The plan would allow the military to supplement law enforcement in major Louisiana cities after it is requested by the state’s governor.
It is unclear whether the governor has requested such assistance and whether the plan has been approved by state or federal officials. But Louisiana’s Republican governor has expressed interest in the idea.
Trump announced a similar plan on Friday to deploy national guard troops to Memphis.
The administration has been criticized for skirting California’s Democratic governor to deploy the national guard to Los Angeles. Trump also attempted to deploy troops to Chicago, and approximately 2,300 national guard troops have been deployed in Washington DC.
The Post reports that after facing resistance from Democratic leaders in California and Illinois, “the president now is looking at states led by Republican governors” to accept troops in Democratic-led cities.
Updated
