President Donald Trump has claimed he could send the Navy, Air Force, and Marines into U.S. cities to do “whatever I want” and the courts would not stop him.
As tensions escalate over the administration’s deployment of the National Guard, Trump warned that he could “routinely” invoke the Insurrection Act to bypass the legal system if he wanted to use all arms of the military against his own citizens.
“If I want to enact a certain Act, I’m allowed to do it,” he said.
“We haven’t chosen to do that because we’re doing very well without it, but I’d be allowed to do that, you know that, right? And the courts wouldn’t get involved. Nobody would get involved, and I could send the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. I could send anybody I wanted.”
The comments represent a dramatic escalation by the president, and sparked widespread criticism that he was trying to play out a “dictator fantasy.”
In theory, he would face restrictions such as the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of federal military forces to enforce domestic laws. This is applied to the Army and Air Force directly, and by policy to the Navy and Marines.
But the comment is not the only time in recent weeks that Trump has raised alarm bells about the extent of his authority.
This month alone, the president has also said he could keep killing suspected drug smugglers without congressional approval, claimed he was the nation’s “chief lawmaker” as he called for the DOJ to go after his enemies, and suggested through his press secretary that he could demolish the Jefferson Memorial without needing legal authority.
Trump’s latest remarks took place aboard Air Force One during his trip to Asia, where he is set to meet with China’s authoritarian leader Xi Jinping.
Asked what he meant when he said earlier that he was prepared to send more than the National Guard into American cities, he replied: “Sure, I would do that if it was necessary. If it was necessary I would do that if it were necessary, but it hasn’t been necessary. We’re doing a great job without that.”
But tensions have escalated in cities such as Chicago, where Trump is currently trying to deploy the National Guard because, according to the administration, local police have failed to respond to “mob violence” by people protesting his immigration enforcement policies.
Things got particularly heated over the weekend when federal agents tear gassed a residential neighborhood for the fourth day in a row on Saturday, disrupting a Halloween parade for kids and violently arresting an elderly man for interfering with the arrest of another man by ICE agents.
“Tear gas is now a tool that ICE will use, not just in protest locations, but on routine street corners, as church is getting out, as school is in session, as patients are trying to enter emergency rooms,” Illinois State Senator Graciela Guzman told The Daily Beast.
“These are all scenarios that I have directly experienced, or that folks around me in my community have experienced in the last two weeks alone.”
The Insurrection Act of 1807 is a federal law that allows the president to deploy the U.S. military or federalize state National Guard troops to quell what he deems an insurrection against the United States.
The president floated the idea of using the act to address civil unrest while campaigning to return to the White House last year, but has yet to invoke it.
His latest comments were widely condemned online.
“This is a dictator fantasy,” said veteran and political analyst Evaristus Odinikaeze. “The president doesn’t just get to ”do whatever I want” because Posse Comitatus, the Insurrection Act, and the courts place real limits.”
“He’s talking about invading the American citizens like they’re the beaches of Normandy,” wrote another X user.
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