Trump says may use Insurrection Act to deploy more troops in US states

Donald Trump

President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy additional troops into U.S. cities run by the Democratic Party, AFP reported. His remarks came after legal opposition thwarted some of his recent troop deployments.

A federal judge in Oregon temporarily blocked Trump’s plan to send National Guard units into Portland, calling the president’s narrative of the city “war-ravaged” as “untethered to the facts,” AFP noted. Meanwhile, in Chicago, a court allowed a deployment for now, delaying a full hearing. AFP cited that Judge April Perry declined to issue an immediate temporary restraining order in Illinois, scheduling a more detailed hearing later in the week.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office: “We have an Insurrection Act for a reason. If I had to enact it I would do that. If people were being killed … sure I would do that.” AFP sources quoted him as saying that “courts were holding us up or governors or mayors were holding us up,” giving him cause to act.

Illinois officials have filed suit to block the troop deployment in Chicago, accusing Trump of misusing the military for “punishing his political enemies,” AFP said. Governor JB Pritzker called for Texas to “stay the hell out of Illinois,” after reports that Texas planned to send 200 federalized National Guard troops to support the effort. AFP further reported that Pritzker accused federal immigration agents of “excessive force” and of illegally detaining U.S. citizens.

Pritzker accused Trump of creating a self-serving “escalation of violence” as a pretext to invoke his emergency powers. He said: “cause chaos, create fear and confusion … make it seem like peaceful protesters are a mob … to create the pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act."

Trump had earlier authorized 700 National Guard troops for Chicago despite opposition from both Chicago’s mayor and Illinois state leadership, AFP reported. The lawsuits by Illinois and city officials argue that American citizens should not live “under the threat of occupation by the United States military.” AFP added that they view such forcible deployments as an unconstitutional overreach.

In Oregon, Judge Karin Immergut -- a Trump appointee -- ruled that the protests did not rise to the level justifying militarised action. “This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law,” she wrote. The Trump administration is appealing that decision, according to AFP.

Legal experts have been quoted to say the Insurrection Act (from 1807) is a rare emergency tool that allows a president to use military force domestically in cases of rebellion or insurrection, effectively creating an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act. AFP noted that under this Act, the president may federalise the National Guard or deploy troops without state consent under certain conditions.

In past instances, Trump has cited a different statute -- Title 10, Section 12406 -- to deploy National Guard troops, arguing that protests or local resistance to immigration enforcement constituted “rebellion or danger thereof.” This move has been described as legally murky and challenged by states.

Trump’s recent escalation, as AFP reported, comes amid broader tension over his broader deployment of federal forces in cities like Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Critics argue that he is pushing the boundaries of executive authority, especially in states led by opposition parties.