US President Donald Trump threatened to activate the Insurrection Act of 1807, which gives him emergency powers to deploy federal forces on American soil, in a move aimed at “circumventing” orders recently issued by the courts, disrupting his efforts to deploy the National Guard in major American cities dominated by his Democratic opponents.
So far, President Trump has exceeded the conventional limits of using the National Guard domestically, establishing a strong role for the army in targeting illegal immigration and crime in US cities. However, his attempt to deploy members of the California National Guard in Oregon, and from Texas in Illinois, was met with lawsuits, at a time when Democratic states are preparing to raise more issues related to constitutional law, federalism, and separation of powers. This paves the way for a potential clash between the judicial authority represented by the courts and the executive authority led by President Trump.
Trump said frankly on the right-wing Newsmax television network that he sees the Insurrection Act as a “way to get around” opposition to troop deployments, adding that “if we don’t have to use it, I won’t use it.”
Trump had previously been asked in the Oval Office about the circumstances under which he would exercise these emergency powers, and he replied, “We have the Insurrection Act for good reason,” adding: “I will do that if necessary, but so far it has not been necessary.” He identified a set of conditions that could justify resorting to that law, including “if people are being killed and the courts are obstructing us, or mayors or governors are obstructing us.” He stressed that some of these conditions have already been met, describing the city of Portland, Oregon, as having been “on fire for years.” He added: “I think this is all rebellion, a truly criminal rebellion.”
The deployment of armed forces on American streets is one of the most prominent manifestations of Trump’s attempt to expand the scope of presidential power. It has already deployed forces in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., knowing that control of the National Guard usually rests with state governors unless the units are federalized, as happened in California despite the objections of Governor Gavin Newsom. In Washington, D.C., Trump personally commands the National Guard.
President Trump says local authorities have failed to protect local communities, citing many Democratic-led cities as examples. He described Portland as “ravaged by war” and “burning” as if it were “living in hell.”
Democratic officials resisted the deployment of the National Guard, most notably Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who accused Trump of creating chaos and confusion to find “a pretext to invoke the Insurrection Act so that he could send the army to our city” Chicago.
Trump’s latest statements came after two court rulings were issued over the weekend preventing the deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops from out of state in Oregon. Judge Karen Emmergat decided to block Trump’s deployment of military forces on Saturday, then expanded the scope of her restraining order on Sunday, after Trump tried to circumvent it.
Mutiny Act
In general, the Insurrection Act gives the president the authority to send troops into states to quell widespread public disturbances and to support civilian law enforcement agencies. Before resorting to this law, the president must first call on the “insurgents” to disperse, according to a 2006 Congressional Research Service report. If stability is not restored, the president may then issue an executive order to deploy forces.
The Insurrection Act has not been invoked in more than 30 years, and Trump’s use of emergency powers for routine law enforcement will have profound implications for civil liberties and traditional limits on federal authority. This law was used in 1992, when riots occurred in Los Angeles after the acquittal of 4 white police officers of charges of beating black driver Rodney King. Armed forces have also been used to quell civil unrest after natural disasters, as in the widespread looting on St. Croix, in the US Virgin Islands, after Hurricane Hugo of 1989.
But the current situation in Chicago, Portland and other cities is a far cry from the general chaos that precipitated those emergencies. Even as Trump describes Chicago in almost apocalyptic language, the city’s homicide rate has declined significantly so far in 2025, with 319 homicides recorded during the year through the end of last September, a decline of nearly half compared to the peak of the pandemic. However, Trump asserted on Monday that it is “probably worse than almost any other city in the world,” and that even Taliban-ruled Afghanistan would be “astonished by the amount of crime we have.”
