As President Trump takes decisive action to rein in the wave of violence plaguing America’s major cities by deploying the National Guard, he’s running into fierce resistance from Democrat crime enablers in states like Oregon, Illinois, and California. These are the same officials who’ve let lawlessness run rampant and now want to block the very measures that could restore order.
Over the weekend, an Oregon judge issued two rulings attempting to stop Trump from deploying any state’s Guard to Portland — rulings the administration is rightly appealing. Not to be outdone, Illinois jumped in on Monday with its own lawsuit. It’s the same tired story: Democrats would rather protect chaos than admit Trump’s law-and-order approach works.
President Trump’s statement on Monday is sure to send Democrats into full meltdown mode: he’s openly considering invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 to push back against their obstruction:
In an appearance in the Oval Office in the afternoon, Mr. Trump was asked under what circumstances he would exercise those emergency powers. Mr. Trump replied that “we have an Insurrection Act for a reason,” and “I’d do it if it were necessary, but so far it hasn’t been necessary.” He laid out a set of conditions that he said could justify invoking the act, including “if people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or mayors or governors were holding us up.”
…Mr. Trump has described Portland, Ore., one of the cities he has targeted for National Guard deployments, as “on fire for years,” adding “I think that’s all insurrection, really criminal insurrection.”
He did add, however, that he’s not yet fully committed to invoking the act: “If we don’t have to use it, I wouldn’t use it.”
Trump: “We have an Insurrection Act for a reason. If I had to enact it, I’d do that.”
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 6, 2025
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller isn’t mincing words. He blasted the avalanche of lawfare and the barrage of activist court rulings against President Trump as nothing less than a “legal insurrection”:
His aide Stephen Miller referred to a judge’s order barring, for now, the deployment of National Guard troops in Portland over the objections of local officials as “legal insurrection.”
“There is an effort to delegitimize the core function of the federal government of enforcing our immigration laws and our sovereignty,” Miller said later in an interview with CNN’s Boris Sanchez on Monday.
The Insurrection Act, first enacted in 1807 and later updated in 1871, gives the president the authority to deploy military forces within the United States to restore order when local authorities refuse or fail to act. It’s hardly unprecedented — in fact, it’s been invoked 30 times throughout American history.
The last use came in 1992, when President George H.W. Bush sent troops to Los Angeles at the request of then-Governor Pete Wilson to stop the riots tearing the city apart (full list here). And it’s worth remembering that Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy both invoked the same law — against the wishes of defiant governors — to enforce school desegregation after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954.
Meanwhile, Democratic mayors and governors continue vowing to rebel against legitimate federal law enforcement efforts:
Trump JUST said he will invoke the Insurrection Act if Governors/Mayors refuse to enforce the law.
Well here is Illinois Governor, flanked by Chicago mayor, claiming they are going to drive ICE “thugs” out of Chicago.
This is an ACTUAL INSURRECTION!
— Clandestine (@WarClandestine) October 6, 2025
Like Trump said, we have an Insurrection Act for a reason. And frankly, he’s on the 80 percent side of this 80/20 issue of cleaning up our cities and making them safer. So by all means, Democrats, continue to take up for criminals and illegal aliens. We’ll see you at the midterms.
