Trump keeps threatening to use the Insurrection Act. What is it?
President Donald Trump has said repeatedly he could invoke the 1807 statute, which gives the president the power to deploy the U.S. military domestically.
By Gary Grumbach and Dareh Gregorian, Oct. 7, 2025, 2:17 PM PDT
President Donald Trump suggested numerous times this week that he could invoke the sweeping presidential powers granted by the Insurrection Act “if necessary.”
“It’s been invoked before,” Trump told reporters Tuesday, adding, “We want safe cities.”
Using the Insurrection Act was something Trump repeatedly suggested he might do in his first term, although he never actually did.
A spokeswoman for the White House, Abigail Jackson, said in a statement Tuesday that the president has “exercised his lawful authority to protect federal officers and assets. President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities.”
Here’s a look at what the Insurrection Act is, and what it would enable the president to do.
What is the Insurrection Act?
While the military is generally barred from being deployed for domestic law enforcement without congressional authorization, the Insurrection Act gives the president power to deploy the U.S. military domestically and to federalize National Guard troops during specific circumstances.
It was signed into law by President Thomas Jefferson in March 1807.
Has it ever been used before?
Many times, but not in decades.
George Washington used an earlier version of the law to stamp out the Whiskey Rebellion in 1792.
President George H.W. Bush was the last to use it during the deadly 1992 Los Angeles riots, following a request from the city’s Democratic mayor and the state’s Republican governor.
What can trigger the use of the Insurrection Act?
While one justification for invoking the act is clear — that the president can take action if asked to do so by a governor or a Legislature — the other standards mentioned in the statute are broad and vague, giving the president wide latitude.
“Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings,he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion,” the statute reads.
Another section says the president, “by using the militia or the armed forces, or both,” shall “takesuch measures as he considers necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy” if it “hinders the execution of the laws of that State, and of the United States within the State,” or if it “opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United Statesor impedes the course of justice under those laws.”
The statutes don’t define the terms, essentially leaving it up to the president to determine what constitutes an insurrection or rebellion, and when it’s been quelled.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: Insurrection Act: What to know as Trump talks using law after National Guard deployment pushback
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