Minneapolis on edge as Trump threatens to use Insurrection Act and send in troops
US president wants to quickly ‘put an end to the travesty’ in Minnesota where protests have flared after violent encounters involving federal agents
Minneapolis was on edge as US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke an 1807 law and deploy troops to quell persistent protests against the federal officers sent to the city to enforce his administration’s massive immigration crackdown.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely used federal law, to deploy the US military or federalise the National Guard for domestic law enforcement, over the objections of state governors.
In 2020, for example, he threatened to use the act to quell protests after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police, and in recent months he threatened to use it for immigration protests.
“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,” Trump said in a social media post.