June 10th, 2025: What the National Guard Can—and Can’t—Do in L.A. & Hamas Chief Found Beneath Gaza Hospital
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It's Tuesday, the 10th of June. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. We'll start things off with another night of chaos in Los Angeles. The National Guard remains on the ground, but what exactly are they allowed to do? We'll break down what the deployment means for Los Angeles and look at the limits of the National Guard's authority.

Later in the show, the latest on the stalled nuclear talks. Iran says it's rejecting the latest U.S. offer and preparing its own counter-proposal. Plus, Russia unleashes its largest drone and missile barrage since the war began. Nearly 500 launched in a single night. You know, honestly, I'm beginning to think that Putin isn't actually interested in peace.

And in today's Back of the Brief, the Israeli military says it's recovered the body of several top Hamas commanders found in a tunnel beneath a Gaza hospital because nothing says you're innocent freedom fighters like hiding your fighters and weapons underneath civilian hospitals. But first, today's PDB Spotlight.

It was another night of chaos in Los Angeles. For the fourth day in a row, masked agitators clashed with law enforcement in a continuation of anti-ice riots that oppose federal efforts to enforce immigration laws in the city.

As we discussed on yesterday's PDB, in a response to the violent protests, President Trump signed a presidential memorandum over the weekend that activated the National Guard, bypassing California Governor Gavin Newsom in order to deploy 2,000 troops to the city. The National Guard troops were sent to help protect ICE agents and local law enforcement as they carry out their duties.

On Sunday, for example, rioters began launching glass bottles, fireworks, Molotov cocktails, and slabs of concrete at officers. LAPD Chief Jim McDonald admitted his department was, quote, overwhelmed and said commercial-grade fireworks were aimed at his officers, noting, quote, that can kill you. But the mainstream media and Democrats, well, they've declared the actions of the Trump administration to be needlessly escalatory and unconstitutional.

So I wanted to take a moment to drill down into the legalities at play and what exactly the National Guard can and can't do.

Trump's memorandum federalizing the California National Guard invoked Title 10, Section 12406 of the U.S. Code, which allows the president to call in members of a state's National Guard under several sets of circumstances. These include situations where there is, quote, "...danger of a rebellion against the authority of the government," and when, quote, "...the president is unable, with the regular forces, to execute the laws of the United States."

The code adds that the president may use the National Guard of any state, quote, in such numbers as he considers necessary to suppress the rebellion or execute those laws.

Now, the Trump administration argued in their memorandum that, quote, to the extent that protests or acts of violence directly inhibit the execution of the laws, they constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the government, end quote. But what exactly are the parameters of the National Guard's authority under this legal code?

We should first remember that the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act forbids the U.S. military, including the National Guard, from taking part in ordinary civilian law enforcement actions. While Title 10 does not override that prohibition, it does allow the troops to protect federal agents and local police who are carrying out law enforcement activity, as well as to protect federal property. So while National Guard troops can't arrest protesters,

they can protect federal ICE agents carrying out such arrests. Now, there is one area of the code where the legalities get, well, a little tricky. A portion of the code states that federal orders to deploy the National Guard are to be issued through the governor of the state, which in this case would be, of course, Governor Newsom, who opposed their deployment.

But according to legal experts who spoke with Reuters, the law is likely on Trump's side in this situation. They say that language is meant to reflect the norms of how National Guard troops are typically deployed and is not meant to give the governor the option not to comply with the presidential order to deploy forces. Regardless, Newsom called the deployment a, quote, unconstitutional act in an interview with MSNBC on Sunday.

and on Monday, he directed the state of California to sue the Trump administration, arguing that the president overstepped his authority by federalizing the National Guard troops without the consent of the governor's office.

But legal analysts told Reuters that for all practical purposes, the lawsuit will only function as a political statement. Shocking that Gavin Newsom would engage in political theater. I honestly didn't see that coming. They said the outcome of such a case is highly uncertain and will likely take months to resolve, at which point the situation in Los Angeles will probably be over. They also noted that the only real precedent for the case dates back to 1965, the last

the last time that a president deployed the National Guard without a governor's consent. In that case, President Lyndon Johnson sent troops to protect civil rights demonstrators in Montgomery, Alabama, over the objection of Governor George Wallace.

There's also currently much discussion about the Insurrection Act, which, if invoked, would allow the president to bypass the restrictions of the Posse Comitatus Act and deploy troops for the purpose of civilian law enforcement. But invoking that rarely used act against the protesters in L.A., well, could put the Trump administration in riskier legal territory.

Where this all ends legally, of course, is anyone's guess. But on Monday evening, hundreds of Marines were mobilized to join the National Guard troops in L.A. For now, well, they'll be restricted to functioning in a support role for federal agents. All right. Coming up next, Iran drafts a counterproposal to the latest U.S. nuclear offer, and Russia launches its biggest drone and missile assault of the war. I'll be right back.

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The nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington are currently deadlocked, with the mullahs rejecting Washington's latest proposal and vowing to submit a counteroffer. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman confirmed Monday that a revised draft is being finalized and will be delivered via Omani mediators. He described the forthcoming offer in a news conference as, quote, reasonable, logical, and balanced. I'll bet it will be, adding that the American proposal, which was handed over last month, it

It was not acceptable. The spokesman added that the proposal from Washington, quote, was not the result of previous rounds of negotiations. An Iranian diplomat close to the talks said the proposal ignored the regime's core demands. Oh, well, they'd been demanding things, particularly the lifting of sanctions and clarity over uranium enrichment.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araqi had previously dismissed the American draft as riddled with quote, ambiguities, underscoring a now familiar Iranian position. The Islamic Republic will not scale back enrichment without concrete economic relief.

That stance was reinforced last week by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who reiterated Iran's intention to continue enriching uranium on its own soil. Western officials have called that a non-starter, arguing that Iran's current activities push the country to the brink of nuclear weapons capability.

Now that's not alarmism. Iran is now the only non-nuclear weapons state enriching uranium to 60% purity. That's an enrichment level with no civilian purpose and alarmingly close to the 90% threshold for weapons-grade material.

As we've discussed here on the PDB, the International Atomic Energy Agency, that would be, of course, the IAEA, well, is fed up. I mean, that only took a few decades to get fed up, so it's an impressive display of patience. In a report now under review at its Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, the agency slammed Tehran's continued obfuscation, citing nuclear material found at undeclared sites

and what it called, quote, less than satisfactory cooperation from the regime's authorities, how diplomatic of them. And yes, today's PDB word of the day is obfuscation.

But in Tehran, the reaction has been, well, predictable. Iranian officials swiftly dismissed the IAEA's findings as politically motivated and based on, quote, forged documents supposedly supplied by Israel. That's an allegation made without evidence. Tehran's foreign ministry spokesman accused Israel of undermining negotiations and called on the international community to hold it accountable for its own undeclared nuclear arsenal. Tehran maintains that its nuclear program

is entirely peaceful. The latest revelations come after five rounds of negotiations between Iran and the U.S. aimed at reviving a nuclear deal in order to replace the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which President Trump withdrew from back in 2018 during his first term. Since returning to office in January, Trump has reinstated and expanded sanctions under his maximum pressure strategy,

and made clear that any future agreement must include a total ban on Iranian uranium enrichment. For now, the timeline for a sixth round of talks remains unclear. Tehran insists enrichment is a, quote, non-negotiable right, while Washington continues to treat it as a red line. Whether future talks can bridge that gap remains to be seen. And by that, I mean they won't be bridging that gap.

All right, shifting to the war in Ukraine. Russia shattered its own record again in its ongoing aerial assault campaign, launching nearly 500 drones and nearly two dozen missiles overnight in the largest single-day barrage since the war began. For those of you keeping track at home, that makes three record-breaking attacks in just over a week, all while the Kremlin continues to play lip service to possible peace talks.

According to Ukraine's Air Force, 479 drones and 20 missiles were launched overnight into Monday Most were intercepted, but at least 10 struck targets The surge in attacks is fueled in part by Russia's deepening reliance on Iranian-made Shahed drones which have allowed Moscow to scale its aerial campaigns to record-setting levels

While mounting a new offensive on the ground in eastern Ukraine, this latest barrage follows two previous landmark assaults. On 1 June, Russia launched 472 drones and seven missiles in what was then the war's largest overnight attack. Just four days later, that record was nearly eclipsed when Russia unleashed 407 drones and cruise missiles and rockets at targets across Ukraine.

The Kremlin's justification for that attack, as we discussed here on the PDB, was retaliation for the June 1st Ukrainian drone strike on Russian air bases that reportedly destroyed or disabled over a third of Moscow's long-range bombers.

But Ukraine hasn't backed down and continues to try to take the war to Russia. On Monday, Russian officials said air defenses intercepted 49 Ukrainian drones, including several targeting sites near Moscow. That's according to the city's mayor in a post on Telegram.

The attack temporarily shuttered two major airports serving the capital. Emergency crews were deployed to the wreckage sites, but there were no immediate reports of casualties. Ukraine's military claimed it targeted a military airfield and a logistics facility east of Moscow, though those reports remain unverified.

Despite repeated pushes from President Trump's administration to broker a ceasefire, negotiations have, well, gone nowhere. A fresh round of peace talks in Istanbul earlier this month produced only a tentative agreement to exchange prisoners and repatriate the remains of fallen soldiers. The swap includes around 12,000 individuals or 6,000 from each side. But over the weekend, that agreement hit a familiar snag. Accusations and denials.

Kremlin lead negotiator and presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky accused Kyiv of dragging its feet, saying, quote, We urge Kyiv to strictly adhere to the timetable and all agreements reached and to begin the exchange immediately. Kyiv fired back as a Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council official dismissed the Kremlin's claims as, quote, inaccurate and

and inconsistent with previous agreements. By late Monday, though, there was finally some movement. Both sides confirmed the first phase of the prisoner exchange had begun. Russia's defense ministry said a "first group" of Russian soldiers had been returned. Ukrainian President Zelensky later confirmed the return of wounded Ukrainian servicemen and young conscripts, saying the swaps would continue in "several stages" over the coming days.

But the repeated record-setting barrage of drone strikes suggests that any meaningful ceasefire remains well out of reach for now. Okay, coming up in the back of the brief. Israel says it found the body of a top Hamas commander in a tunnel beneath a Gaza hospital. I'll have those details next.

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In today's Back of the Brief, we turn to Gaza, where the body of Hamas military chief Mohamed Sinmar has been recovered. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had previously announced Sinmar's death last month, following a series of devastating airstrikes on the 13th of May in southern Gaza. But officials with the IDF in Shin Bet were able to officially confirm Sunday that the terror chief and brother of Hamas's deceased former leader Yahya Sinmar had indeed perished.

According to a report from the Times of Israel, Sinwar died while hiding in an underground tunnel beneath a European Union-funded hospital alongside other senior Hamas militants. His body was extracted from the tunnel over the weekend along with the body of Mohammad Shabana, who served as the commander of Hamas's Rafah Brigade.

An IDF spokesperson said a number of other bodies had also been recovered but were still being identified. They also seized weapons, ammunition, cash, and documents. The announcement came shortly after the IDF gave a small group of foreign reporters a tour of the tunnel, which was uncovered underneath the European hospital in Kan Yunis. IDF officials said the tunnel complex beneath the European hospital served as a major command and control compound for Hamas.

IDF Brigadier General Effie Deferin told NBC News, quote, This is another example of the cynical use by Hamas, using civilians as human shields, using civilian infrastructure, hospitals again and again. We found underneath the hospital, right under the emergency room, a compound of a few rooms. In one of them, we found we killed Mohamed Sinwar, end quote.

The 8-meter-deep tunnel where the terror leaders were hiding was reportedly part of a massive subterranean network that connected Hamas's brigades in Qan Yunis with those in Rafah. We should know that the airstrikes last month struck areas of the tunnel outside of the hospital complex and that the hospital was able to continue operations after the strikes. Officials said that due to the tunnel cave-ins caused by their strikes, the Hamas operatives, including Sinmoor, had suffocated to death.

Brigadier General Deferin told reporters, quote, this was one of the command and control centers that Hamas used to carry out the October 7th attacks on the Gaza border communities, the slaughter and the murder. He added, quote, you can see where European funds went.

The hospital is located in an area of Khan Yunus that ground troops had not entered until last week as part of Operation Gideon's chariots. Deferin said the purpose of the operation is two-pronged, to bring back the remaining hostages and to eliminate Hamas.

Officials said critical intelligence was found regarding the hostages inside the tunnel, though did not elaborate further. Last week, the IDF recovered the bodies of two Israeli-American hostages killed during Hamas's terror attacks, which were being held in Gaza by terrorists from the Mushadin Brigades. More than 50 hostages, both alive and dead, are still being held inside the enclave.

And that, my friends, is the President's Daily Brief for Tuesday, the 10th of June. Now, if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdbatthefirsttv.com. To listen to the show ad-free, well, that's a simple thing to do. Just become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting pdbpremium.com. See, I told you it was simple. And remember to check out our YouTube channel.

That's at President's Daily Brief. You won't regret it. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back later today with the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.