Insurrection Act

Trump threatens to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota after protests

Minnesota's attorney general says he'd challenge such an action in court.

By Gregory Svirnovskiy and Kyle Cheney

President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to send the military into Minneapolis over widespread demonstrations after federal agents shot and wounded a man, and in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of a protester by an ICE agent last week.

“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,” the president wrote on Truth Social.

Minneapolis has become the center of the national fight over Trump’s immigration agenda, after an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year old Renee Good in her car last week. State and city officials have since sparred with the federal government over everything from continued law enforcement presence in Minnesota to the status of the investigation into Good’s killing.

“This is not sustainable,” Minneapolis Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey said in a press conference Wednesday night. “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.”

Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act — which authorizes the deployment of the military for certain domestic purposes during civil unrest — when his mass deportation efforts have been met with protests or violence. He sharpened that threat recently after the Supreme Court ruled that his previous efforts to deploy the National Guard into Democratic-led cities exceeded his authority.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Democrat, said in a statement Thursday that if Trump follows through, he is prepared to challenge that in court.

“For decades, my Republican colleagues have warned against tyrannical federal overreach,” he said. “Well, it is now at their doorstep. I urge Minnesota Republicans to join me in speaking out against this dire threat of escalation from the federal government. Before any of us are Democrats or Republicans, we are Minnesotans. If ever there was a time to set partisan politics aside and do what is right for our state, our country, and our democracy, it is now.”

Trump’s rhetoric about Minnesota has echoes of his focus on Portland, Oregon, last fall, when protests at a federal ICE field office in South Portland caught the White House’s attention. Trump at the time told reporters he would enact the 1807 law if “people are being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up.” He repeatedly referred to the rioters in Portland as “insurrectionists.”

Top Trump officials in recent days have returned to this language. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said last week that the Democratic Party is “committed to inciting a violent insurrection to keep millions of foreign criminal trespassers on our soil.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also called Good a “leftist insurrectionist who was purposefully and illegally obstructing law enforcement operations.”

Its invocation would fulfill a long-term desire of Trump’s. He views the Insurrection Act as the epitome of executive power and considered invoking it during his first term to quell unrest after George Floyd’s killing. Aides suggested it again after the 2020 election, Trump talked about it extensively during the 2024 campaign, and allies discussed it in the context of the 2024 election — worried the president’s victory could spark violent protests.

Trump’s post comes as a federal judge is on the cusp of a ruling that could sharply curtail ICE’s ability to push back on protests and make arrests of demonstrators. U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez intends to rule no later than Friday morning on whether to restrict ICE’s use of nonlethal force, stops of motorists who tail ICE vehicles and arrests of people obeying police perimeters.

In a separate post Thursday morning, Trump referred to Menendez, a Biden appointee, as a “highly respected” judge for her decision to wait a few days before deciding on a broader lawsuit by Minnesota against “Operation Metro Surge,” the infusion of federal authorities into Minneapolis and St. Paul to carry out immigration operations.

Minnesota officials urged people living in the city to exercise restraint as violence has escalated.

“I know you’re angry,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz wrote Wednesday night on X. “I’m angry. What Donald Trump wants is violence in the streets. But Minnesota will remain an island of decency, of justice, of community, and of peace. Don’t give him what he wants.”

Trump’s statement came just hours after a man was shot in the leg by federal law enforcement, in what the Department of Homeland Security said was a move of self-defense.

The agency alleged in a statement on X that the officer was “violently assaulted” by the suspect, as well as two others, and fired his weapon in self-defense.

DHS blamed Walz and Frey for the incident.

“Their hateful rhetoric and resistance against men and women who are simply trying to do their jobs must end,” the agency wrote. “Federal law enforcement officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest criminals and lawbreakers.”

Vice President JD Vance, in a White House press briefing last Thursday, claimed that the ICE agent who fatally shot Good enjoyed absolute immunity because he was “engaging in federal law enforcement action.”

Walz, Frey and more Democrats throughout Minnesota have urged ICE to leave the state, arguing that the federal government’s presence has only inflamed tensions around Trump’s immigration and deportation agenda.

Protests continued on Wednesday night, as federal officers clashed with protesters who threw snowballs in a haze of tear gas, culminating in the violent confrontation.