Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office this week, President Donald Trump did not rule out using the Insurrection Act to stamp out crime in Chicago.
The 19th-century statute, a combination of different laws enacted by Congress between 1792 and 1871, would allow the use of active-duty military personnel to perform law-enforcement duties within the United States.
In recent months, Trump has repeatedly moved to deploy federal troops to Democratic-run cities he says have high crime rates.
Newsweek contacted the White House for comment via email outside normal business hours.
Why It Matters
Since returning to office in January, Trump has made cracking down on crime a major priority. He has authorized the use of federal troops in several U.S. cities—including Chicago and Washington, D.C., which he said had “become one of the most dangerous cities in the World.”
Trump also attempted to send the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, following protests near an ICE building over the weekend. However, the move has faced legal challenges. While the president has argued that the troops are needed to stop violence, critics say he is exceeding his executive authority to illegally target Democratic-run areas.
Invoking the Insurrection Act would allow Trump to circumvent these legal challenges and further raise questions about the limits of presidential power.
What To Know
On Tuesday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the act had “been invoked before,” leaving open the possibility of future use.
He added that troops were necessary to protect federal property and bring down crime.
“If you look at Chicago—Chicago is a great city where there’s a lot of crime, and if the governor can’t do the job, we’ll do the job. It’s all very simple,” the president said.
In January, Trump issued an executive order declaring a border emergency and requesting a report from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem within 90 days on whether to invoke the act.
On Monday, he told reporters in the Oval Office: “We have an Insurrection Act for a reason. If I had to enact it, I’d do that. If people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I’d do that.”
The act has not been used often. President Abraham Lincoln invoked it during the Civil War, while President Ulysses S. Grant used it to combat the Ku Klux Klan.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower used it to order federal troops to escort Black students into Little Rock Central High School after Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus refused to comply with a federal desegregation order.
Most recently, President George H.W. Bush invoked the act during the 1992 riots in Los Angeles, which saw 63 dead, about 2,300 injured and more than 12,000 arrested.
What People Are Saying
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker told reporters on Monday: “Let me be clear: Donald Trump is using our service members as political props and as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities.”
What Happens Next
The Trump administration has deployed Texas National Guard soldiers to a facility outside Chicago, with Texas Governor Greg Abbott writing on X that they were “on the ground and ready to go.”