The president asserts his authority under the rarely-used law amid a growing legal firestorm over existing National Guard deployments in Democratic-led cities.
CaliToday (04/11/2025/2025): President Donald Trump has declared he is prepared to deploy the U.S. Marines or other active-duty military forces into American cities "in a heartbeat" if he deems it necessary, escalating his rhetoric on using federal power for domestic law enforcement.
Speaking in an interview broadcast on CBS News' "60 Minutes" on November 2, the president asserted that he possesses the full legal authority to do so under the Insurrection Act—a controversial, rarely-used federal law.
"If I need to send in the military or the Marines into cities, I’ll do it in a heartbeat," Trump stated. He noted, however, that he has chosen to restrain himself so far, "because I haven't seen it as necessary."
The statement is a significant escalation of comments made just days earlier. On October 27, while addressing troops at Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan, the president said he was "ready to send in much more than the National Guard" to secure cities he described as "crime-ridden."
"People in our crime-ridden cities want to be safe they don't care what force it is, they want to be protected," Trump said at Yokosuka. "We have cities that are in serious trouble. We can't let that happen. If we need more than the National Guard, we'll send more, because America must have safe cities."
The Insurrection Act: A "Powerful" Tool
The legal mechanism Trump cites for this potential action is the Insurrection Act of 1807. This law grants the president the unique power to deploy active-duty U.S. military forces on domestic soil to suppress rebellion, enforce federal law, or protect civil rights when state and local authorities are deemed unable or unwilling to do so.
This authority effectively bypasses the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which generally prohibits the federal military from acting as a domestic police force.
"You know, I can use that act immediately, and no judge can stop it," President Trump asserted on "60 Minutes," calling it the "most powerful authority a U.S. president has."
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the Insurrection Act has been used approximately 30 times in American history by 16 different presidents, most notably to enforce desegregation in the South during the Civil Rights movement. Its last invocation was in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush to quell the Los Angeles riots.
Existing Deployments and Legal Firestorms
The president's threats do not exist in a vacuum. His administration is already engaged in a significant legal and political battle over the domestic deployment of the National Guard to several Democratic-led cities, including Washington, D.C., Memphis, Los Angeles, and Portland.
President Trump has touted these deployments as a major success.
"We are getting a lot of bad dudes off the street," he told reporters on Air Force One on October 28. "We’re arresting gangs... things that local police couldn't do." He specifically claimed that after the National Guard was sent to Memphis, the crime rate dropped by "60 or 70 percent."
However, these actions are being fiercely contested in federal court.
On November 2, the same day the "60 Minutes" interview aired, Federal Judge Karin Immergut extended a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from sending National Guard units to Portland, Oregon, to protect federal immigration facilities.
In her ruling, Judge Immergut stated that the plaintiffs the states of Oregon and California, along with the city of Portland had successfully demonstrated that the president likely exceeded his authority. She noted that federal law only permits the president to deploy the National Guard without a governor's consent in cases of "actual insurrection or emergency."
The state of Illinois and the city of Chicago have filed similar lawsuits, accusing the president of an "abuse of power" and using federal troops for "political purposes" rather than public safety.
Civil liberties groups have echoed these concerns.
"This is an abuse of presidential power, an insult to our service members, and a waste of federal funds for political theater," said Sandy Chung, Executive Director of the ACLU of Oregon.
The White House, in contrast, has consistently defended its actions. Administration officials maintain the deployments are "lawful and necessary" to protect federal property and personnel in locations where, they allege, local Democratic leaders have failed to maintain law and order.
In a social media post in late September, President Trump made his position clear: "I have ordered the deployment of all necessary forces to protect Portland a city under siege and the ICE facilities being attacked by Antifa and other domestic terrorists. I am authorizing the use of full force if necessary."