Trump threatens to use the Insurrection Act to ‘put an end’ to protests in Minneapolis

President Trump warned Thursday that he would invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy the military in Minnesota if protesters continue to attack federal agents carrying out immigration raids.

He blamed Minnesota’s political leaders for allowing the escalation of violence against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrections from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to 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,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison responded to Mr. Trump by threatening to challenge the insurrection in court. Mr. Ellison has already filed a lawsuit against the administration to stop the surge of federal agents in his state. 

“I’m making a direct appeal to the President: Let’s turn the temperature down. Stop this campaign of retribution. This is not who we are,” Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, said on X.

The Insurrection Act is a 1807 law that allows a president to deploy the military to suppress rebellions or enforce federal law. It grants a president the authority to federalize the National Guard and deploy active duty forces to restore order. It was last invoked by President George H.W. Bush during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

If invoked, the Insurrection Act would temporarily override the Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts the use of the military for domestic law enforcement.

In the 250-year history of the U.S., the Insurrection Act has only been invoked 30 times, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, a law and policy organization. The majority of those times were invoked by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, during the civil rights movement and in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination.

Mr. Trump has floated the idea of using the Insurrection Act before, most recently in June amid rioting and protests in Los Angeles over immigration raids and deportations. 

The president’s threat follows two recent shootings involving ICE agents in Minneapolis.

On Wednesday, an ICE agent shot a Venezuelan migrant in the leg during an attempt to arrest him. The ICE agent was ambushed by people who attacked him with a shovel and a broom handle, forcing him to open fire, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Last week, an ICE agent fatally shot Nicole Good in Minneapolis when she used her car to interfere with an ICE enforcement operation. DHS said she drove her car at an ICE agent, hitting him before he shot her. The ICE agent’s bodycam video appeared to support that version of events.

In between those incidents, federal agents shot two people in Portland, Oregon, after one of them allegedly rammed their truck into an unoccupied U.S. Border Patrol vehicle before the shooting.

DHS said it has made 2,000 arrests in Minnesota since December. 

Minnesota officials in a press conference following Wednesday night’s shooting blamed the violence in their state on Mr. Trump, arguing that deploying ICE to Minneapolis has inflamed tensions.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, said the situation is “not sustainable.”

“This is an impossible situation that our city is presently being put in and at the same time, we are trying to find a way forward to keep people safe, to protect our neighbors, to maintain order,” he said. 

In a rare prime-time address, Mr. Walz, a  Democrat, compared federal agents carrying out operations to a military “occupation.”

“What’s happening in Minnesota right now defies belief,” he said. “News reports simply don’t do justice to the level of chaos and disruption and trauma the federal government is raining down on our communities,” he said. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday blamed Democrats for escalating violence with their rhetoric.

“They are simply trying to enforce the law,” she said of the federal agents. “And the Democratic Party had demeaned these individuals. They’ve even referred to them as Nazis and Gestapo and that is absolutely leading to the violence we are seeing in the streets.”