President Trump threatened on Monday to invoke the Insurrection Act — an 1807 law that grants the president emergency powers to deploy troops on U.S. soil — in response to recent court rulings that have blocked his efforts to deploy the National Guard in major American cities.
In an appearance in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump was asked under what circumstances he would exercise those emergency powers. Mr. Trump replied that “we have an Insurrection Act for a reason” and that he would invoke the act “if people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or mayors or governors were holding us up.”
His remarks came after two court rulings over the weekend blocked the Trump administration from deploying hundreds of out-of-state National Guard troops to Oregon. Judge Karin Immergut, an appointee of Mr. Trump’s, initially blocked his deployment of military forces on Saturday and then broadened her restraining order on Sunday after Mr. Trump tried to sidestep it, telling Justice Department lawyers that the president had been “in direct contravention” of her order.
Mr. Trump appeared to be constructing a narrative that would justify invoking emergency powers to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement — an idea he has pushed repeatedly since his first term. The Insurrection Act has not been invoked for more than 30 years, and Mr. Trump’s use of the emergency powers for routine law enforcement would carry profound implications for civil liberties and for the traditional constraints on federal power.
The murder rate has fallen significantly in Chicago so far in 2025, with 319 homicides recorded for the year through the end of September — down by nearly half compared with the height of the pandemic. But Mr. Trump has described the city of Chicago in near-apocalyptic language, asserting on Monday that it’s “probably worse than almost any city in the world” and that even Taliban-ruled Afghanistan would “marvel at how much crime we have.”
Generally, the Insurrection Act gives the president the power to send military forces to states to quell widespread public unrest and to support civilian law enforcement agencies. Before invoking it, the president must first call for the “insurgents” to disperse, according to a Congressional Research Service report published in 2006. If stability is not restored, the president may then issue an executive order to deploy troops.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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