Trump says he would invoke the Insurrection Act “if necessary”

President Donald Trump said he would consider invoking the Insurrection Act if local or state authorities were unable to control violence or if courts prevented federal action, following a series of legal challenges over his deployment of National Guard troops in several U.S. cities.

“Well, I’ll do it if it was necessary,” Trump told reporters on Monday when asked about invoking the Insurrection Act. “So far it hasn’t been necessary, but we have an Insurrection Act for a reason.”

“If I had to enact it, I’ll do that,” Trump added. “If people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure I’ll do that.”

Trump’s comments come as his administration faces multiple lawsuits over efforts to send federally controlled National Guard troops to several U.S. cities.

On Saturday, a court blocked the deployment of Oregon’s National Guard, ruling that conditions in Portland did not meet the legal thresholds required for federalization, such as rebellion or invasion. The judge described the protests as “small and sedate” and said Trump’s claims of widespread violence were “untethered to the facts.”

Last week, Oregon and the City of Portland sued Trump and top federal officials over his decision to federalize 200 National Guard members, arguing that the move exceeded presidential authority. The lawsuit contends that no circumstances of invasion, rebellion, or obstruction of federal law existed to justify the order.

The White House maintains that Trump acted lawfully to protect federal property from “violent riots.”

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a similar lawsuit on Monday to block a planned deployment of troops to Chicago. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker called the plan “outrageous and un-American.”

The Insurrection Act, which dates back to 1807, allows the president to deploy military forces within the United States under limited conditions, such as to suppress rebellion, enforce federal law, or protect civil rights when local authorities cannot or will not act.

It has been invoked only a handful of times in modern history, including during the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the desegregation of Southern schools in the 1950s and 1960s.