Trump threatens Insurrection Act amid National Guard troop deployments
President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act. He said he’ll do it “if necessary,” specifically, if courts or local officials try to block his deployment of National Guard troops across the nation.
“We have an Insurrection Act for a reason. If I had to enact it, I’d do that,” the president said in the Oval Office on Monday. “If people were being killed and courts were holding us up or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I would do that, I mean, I want to make sure that people aren’t killed. We have to make sure that our cities are safe.”
The Insurrection Act of 1807 allows the president to deploy the military for civilian law enforcement purposes under limited circumstances. It was last used during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
Trump made the comments when talking about his efforts to federalize troops in Democratic-run cities. As of Tuesday, the president has ordered National Guard troops to Chicago, Portland, Oregon, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Trump specifically addressed Portland in an interview with Newsmax on Monday night, saying there’s an insurrection in Portland.
“If we don’t have to use it, I wouldn’t use it,” Trump said before adding, “If you take a look at what’s been going on in Portland, it’s been going on for a long time, and that’s insurrection. I mean, that’s pure insurrection.”
Illinois lawsuit against Trump administration
The president’s comments come after Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker accused the administration of staging a “military-style invasion” of Chicago.
The state and the city filed a lawsuit Monday to block the federalization of the Illinois Guard.
“There is no invasion here. There is no insurrection here. And local and state law enforcement are on the job and managing what they need to,” Pritzker said. “Without my permission and against my vigorous objections, the president has federalized 300 Illinois National Guard military troops and hundreds of National Guard members from Texas.”
The governor continued, saying, “Let me be clear: Donald Trump is using our service members as political props and as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities.”
The Department of Homeland Security responded, calling Pritzker’s claims a “smorgasbord of lies” and saying he should “get out of his mansion and see Chicago.”
“If J.B. Pritzker actually walked the streets of his own city, he would see domestic terrorists and violent rioters attacking police officers and the scourge of violent crime as a direct result of his own policies.”
Oregon lawsuit
Oregon filed a similar lawsuit last week. Over the weekend, a judge issued a ruling, temporarily blocking the Trump administration from deploying National Guard members from California or other states to the streets of Portland.
The judge’s temporary order remains in effect until Oct. 18 as the Trump administration appeals the case.
In the ruling, the judge accused the White House of circumventing federal law and violating the Constitution by using the military when no significant threat or insurrection existed.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
