US Politics
Trump turns down heat on his threat to use the Insurrection Act: ‘I don’t think there’s any reason right now’
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President Donald Trump on Friday downplayed the possibility he would invoke the Insurrection Act to quell protests in Minnesota, just a day after he threatened to use the emergency law to send the military in as part of his administration’s ongoing crackdown on the state.
Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for Palm Beach, Florida, Trump said he saw “no reason” to use the act, which was last invoked in the 1990s.
“I don’t think there’s any reason right now to use it, but if I needed it, I’d use it,” Trump said.
In a separate post on Truth Social on Friday, President Trump threatened some kind of quick action and repeated his allegation that protesters are paid agitators, even though his administration has not presented any evidence of this.
“In Minnesota, the Troublemakers, Agitators, and Insurrectionists are, in many cases, highly paid professionals,” Trump wrote. “The Governor and Mayor don’t know what to do, they have totally lost control, and our currently being rendered, USELESS! If, and when, I am forced to act, it will be solved, QUICKLY and EFFECTIVELY!”
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Just yesterday Trump seemed close to calling in the troops.
“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 on Truth Social.
Top Trump officials had sounded a similar note throughout the week, like Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“ICE operates in thousands of counties without incident. Men and women doing their jobs, protecting us from criminal aliens,” he wrote on X. “Minnesota insurrection is a direct result of a FAILED governor and a TERRIBLE mayor encouraging violence against law enforcement. It’s disgusting.”
The change in tone comes amid reported internal concerns that GOP support is declining for the administration’s military-style immigration tactics, prompting the White House to discuss “recalibrating” its approach.
“The President has been consistent and has not changed his position,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told The Independent. “He is able to use all tools in the toolbox to address violent riots as he deems appropriate.”
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Things ratcheted up further with two recent shootings this month: an ICE agent fatally shooting mother Renee Good, and a federal agent shooting a migrant in the leg during an arrest.
Minnesota officials have repeatedly called for calm, while criticizing the Trump administration’s tactics in the state and arguing video evidence shows that Good, whom the White House accuses of being a domestic terrorist, posed no threat to officers.
This week, the ACLU sued the administration, alleging its operation in Minnesota has been defined by “police-state tactics” and mass racial profiling of Somalis and Latinos.
