President Donald Trump is ready to pull out the big guns—literally—by considering the Insurrection Act to send federal troops into American cities facing unrest.
Fox News reported that Trump’s latest statements on Monday come after a federal judge blocked his plan to deploy National Guard units from California and Texas to Portland, Oregon, while ongoing demonstrations outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility continue to stir controversy.
Immergut argued there’s no solid proof that the recent protests against ICE in Portland justify federalizing the Guard, a decision that’s got the White House fuming.
Before the ruling, roughly 100 National Guard troops were already on the ground in Portland, with plans to double that number by day’s end, only to be halted by the court’s order.
Adding fuel to the fire, this isn’t the first judicial slapdown—earlier, the same court denied Trump’s bid to use Oregon’s own Guard troops in the city, while states like California and Oregon have sued over the deployments.
Enter Trump’s Monday response, where he didn’t mince words about possibly invoking the Insurrection Act, a dusty 1807 law that lets a president deploy military forces to quash rebellion or enforce federal mandates.
“I’d do it if it were necessary. So far it hasn’t been necessary,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, signaling he’s keeping the option on the table while hoping cooler heads prevail.
But he didn’t stop there, adding, “If people were being killed and courts were holding us up or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I’d do that,” making it clear he sees public safety as non-negotiable, even if it means overriding legal or local pushback (Trump, Oval Office remarks).
Portland’s been a hotbed of unrest, with protests outside an ICE facility ongoing and law enforcement resorting to smoke grenades to scatter crowds as recently as last Saturday.
Trump’s frustration is palpable, and while he’s also ordered Guard troops from other states to cities like Chicago and Memphis, the Portland situation seems to be the thorniest sticking point.
If the Insurrection Act comes into play, it would sidestep the Posse Comitatus Act, which normally limits military involvement in domestic policing, giving Trump broad power to federalize the Guard or even send active-duty forces.
Here’s a bit of trivia—this Act hasn’t been used since the 1992 Los Angeles riots, though Trump’s team mulled it during the George Floyd protests of his first term, but ultimately held back.
Critics like Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker aren’t buying Trump’s rationale, claiming, “The Trump administration is following a playbook: cause chaos, create fear and confusion, make it seem like peaceful protesters are a mob by firing gas pellets and tear gas canisters at them,” suggesting this is all a setup to justify drastic measures (Pritzker, news conference).
While Pritzker’s take paints a sinister picture, one can’t ignore that prolonged unrest in cities like Portland raises legitimate concerns about order, though whether federal boots on the ground are the answer remains a fierce debate worth having without the progressive spin of victimhood or conspiracy.
