Donald J. Trump took to his presidential podium on Truth Social on Thursday morning to vow to invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely used federal law to deploy the U.S. military or federalize the National Guard for domestic law enforcement, to stop alleged “professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E.”
“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” he wrote. “Thank you for you [SIC] attention to this matter! President DJT”
Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act. Trump said last October that one particular president, whom he didn’t name, used the Insurrection Act “28 times during the course of a presidency.” That is, of course, a lie. The Insurrection Act has been invoked about 30 times throughout American history.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche referred to the protests in Minnesota against ICE abuses on social media as an “insurrection.”
