After days of protests in Minneapolis following a deadly ICE shooting, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act if state leaders do not shut the demonstrations down. The threat came directly from Trump himself in a post on Truth Social, where he framed protesters as enemies and painted federal agents as victims.
The protests began after an ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old mother Renee Good. The Trump administration claims the shooting was justified, saying Good “weaponized” her vehicle when agents surrounded her as she tried to drive away.
Tensions grew even more after another ICE officer shot a migrant in the leg during an arrest in Minneapolis. At the same time, the administration sent thousands of ICE and Border Patrol officers into the city. Agents have been moving through neighborhoods in unmarked vehicles, stopping and confronting people they believe may be undocumented.
As protests spread, Trump escalated his language.
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“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump wrote.
The Insurrection Act is a law passed in 1807. It gives the president power to deploy the military inside the United States during unrest. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the law allows a president “to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations.”
The act also acts as an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. That law limits the military’s role in everyday law enforcement. The restriction was created after troops were repeatedly used against civilians during the Civil War and Reconstruction, often leading to abuse.
Trump claims many presidents have used the Insurrection Act, but history shows it is rare. The last time it was invoked was more than 30 years ago, when President George H.W. Bush sent troops to Los Angeles during the Rodney King riots, and only after California’s governor asked for help.
Earlier presidents used the law cautiously. John F. Kennedy and Dwight Eisenhower relied on it to protect Black students integrating schools in the South. Lyndon Johnson used it in Detroit in 1967 when state authorities were overwhelmed by violence.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
