Concerns are emerging around whether Donald Trump will invoke the Insurrection Act, following his declaration of a state of emergency at the southern border earlier this year. For context, Trump signed an array of executive orders on his first day back in office in January.
One of these orders saw him declare a state of emergency at the southern border in response to immigration, and it included tasking the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security to submit, within 90 days, a report about the conditions at the border and any recommended actions needed to secure it.
Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency on our southern border…– As a result, illegal border crossings last month were by far the lowest ever recorded : Donald Trump #DonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/W1J5c4yVr8
— WION (@WIONews) March 5, 2025
One such action mentioned in the order was “whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.” Now, as the 90-day deadline for the report inches closer, attention has turned to the increased presidential powers that Trump could assume if the Insurrection Act is invoked. Only amplifying concerns, Trump recently fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., the nation’s top uniformed officer, as well as other top Pentagon officials — removing what could have been the guardrails in his attempts to invoke the Insurrection Act.
The declaration of martial law would allow Trump to deploy the U.S. armed forces and the militia at his whim, with the authoritarian sympathizer might do.
Donald Trump and his allies have a long history of violent rhetoric.
— deray (@deray) July 23, 2024
But don’t just take our word for it – take theirs. Literally.
If elected, Trump plans to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows the president to use the military as a domestic police force. pic.twitter.com/jSHpRWGiqX
The Insurrection Act has been invoked 40 times in U.S. history, including by President Lyndon Johnson — who used it to mobilize troops to quell riots after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. — and George H. W. Bush, who invoked it in response to the LA riots during the Rodney King case. However, neither of those presidents had consistently floated the unconstitutional idea of a third term, and neither promised citizens that they would not have to vote again if they were reelected.
Of course, much of the concern around the Insurrection Act boils down to the megalomania of the person who could potentially wield it. Last week, Trump caused at least one person to fall asleep.
Donald Trump could now invoke the Insurrection Act at the slightest sign of dissent from the American public and unleash the military on citizens in city streets.
— Philip Germain (@PhilipJGermain) July 1, 2024
All while being completely immune under this SCOTUS decision.
The public instability that would create grounds for the Insurrection Act is only enhanced by Trump’s foreign policies and ‘diplomacy.’ Since coming into office, he has created international unrest by annexation of Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal, and renaming the Gulf of Mexico. Leave it to Trump to create these destabilizing issues, then swoop in to “fix” them by invoking the Insurrection Act.
Published: Mar 7, 2025 06:12 am