Trump: Insurrection Act Is on the Table

President Trump warned Monday that he might turn to the rarely-used Insurrection Act if courts block his efforts to deploy the National Guard for law enforcement across the US, Politico reports. The possibility comes after a federal judge halted Trump's attempt to send troops into Portland, Oregon, where he claims "left-wing domestic terrorists" are at fault for ongoing unrest. Speaking from the Oval Office Monday, Trump clarified he does not currently see the need to invoke the 1807 law, but said, "if I had to enact it, I'd do it, if people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up." He also said, in an appearance on Newsmax, that the act could be "a way to get around" the pushback on troop deployments, the New York Times reports.

"You look at what's happening with Portland over the years, it's a burning hell hole," he added from the Oval Office. "And then you have a judge that lost her way that tries to pretend that there's no problem." The Insurrection Act allows presidents to deploy military forces on US soil or federalize the National Guard if the president believes an insurrection is threatening public order. The comments come as Democratic governors are increasingly challenging Trump's troop deployments, and a constitutional law expert who spoke to the AP posed this question: "What will happen when the president loses in court? Will he use it as an excuse to act in an even more authoritarian way?" Illinois Governor JB Pritzker warned Monday that he believes Trump is working to sow chaos as "pretext" for invoking the Insurrection Act, the Independent reports.

Also Monday, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller echoed the president's frustration, describing recent court rulings as a "legal insurrection," aka "an insurrection against the laws and Constitution of the United States," he said. "We need to have district courts in this country that see themselves as being under the laws and Constitution and not being able to take for themselves powers that are reserved solely for the president," Miller continued. Another Trump ally, Steve Bannon, told NBC News the act should be invoked "immediately." This isn't Trump's first brush with the Insurrection Act. He raised the possibility on the 2024 campaign trail, suggesting it would be a tool to curb unrest. As his first term wound down, some allies pressed him to invoke the act in an effort to stay in office after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden.