(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to use the Insurrection Act in Minnesota as tensions escalated after another shooting involving a federal officer.
Protesters have gathered in Minnesota and nationwide in the week after a federal officer shot and killed motorist Renee Macklin Good. Other shootings by federal agents have occurred in the days since — including the shooting of two people in Portland, and another in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
“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 wrote on social media.
Trump previously levied the same threat against protesters in Portland, Chicago and Los Angeles over 2024 demonstrations against federal immigration efforts. Though he deployed National Guard troops to those cities, it was not done under the Insurrection Act.
Trump on Jan. 1 announced he would remove National Guard troops from those cities after months of litigation and Supreme Court rulings hindered his ability to deploy the military over protests.
“Portland, Los Angeles and Chicago were GONE if it weren’t for the Federal Government stepping in,” Trump wrote on Jan. 1. “We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form when crime begins to soar again. Only a question of time.”
-
Demonstrators march outside the White House in Washington, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) -
People gather around a makeshift memorial honoring the victim of a fatal shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, near the site of the shooting, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker) -
People gather near the scene of a suspected shooting by an ICE agent during federal law enforcement operations on Jan. 07, 2026, in Minneapolis. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
What is the Insurrection Act?
Originally enacted in 1807, the Insurrection Act can be invoked to suppress rebellion, violence or enforce the law in certain situations.
It allows the president to deploy the U.S. military domestically, which is typically outlawed by the Posse Comitatus Act.
“In theory, the Insurrection Act should be used only in a crisis that is truly beyond the capacity of civilian authorities to manage,” according to the Brennan Center, which adds that the law fails “to adequately define or limit when it may be used.”
This story is developing. Download our NewsNation app for 24/7 fact-based unbiased coverage.
