Trump is trying to cause chaos in American cities before invoking Insurrection Act, governor in his crosshairs warns

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Donald Trump’s administration is surging federal law enforcement across the country to “cause chaos” and “create fear and confusion” as a “pretext” for invoking the Insurrection Act, according to Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.

“Donald Trump is using our service members as political props and as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize America’s cities,” he said during a press conference Monday.

The Democratic governor, whose administration is suing the president over the deployment of National Guard troops to the state, argued that Trump’s “deranged” depiction of Chicago as a “hellhole” and a “warzone” is “just complete B.S.”

But Trump’s threats to send National Guard troops to the city — following escalating violence from federal agents that includes using chemical agents against protesters and a military-style Border Patrol raid of a Chicago apartment building — suggest that the president has “decided to declare war on a great American city,” Pritzker said.

Administration officials, including Homeland Security Kristi Noem, have sought to “consolidate Trump’s power” by deploying federalized troops into Democratic-led cities under a crisis of their own making, according to the governor.

Illinois JB Pritzker argues that the Trump administration is escalating violent responses to quell protests as pretext to invoke the Insurrection Acty (REUTERS)

“That plan will only work if we let it,” he said. “The state of Illinois is going to use every lever at its disposal and get Noem’s thugs the hell out of Chicago.”

The political feud between Trump and the governor has been boiling over into a potential constitutional crisis for weeks, but the president has targeted the city of Chicago for years.

Trump has repeatedly mocked the governor’s physical appearance and labeled him a “slob,” but his feud with Chicago spans more than a decade, characterizing America’s third-largest city as the lawless embodiment of violent “inner cities.”

Last month, he falsely labeled Chicago the “murder capital of the world,” despite roughly 20 cities in the United States with higher murder rates.

Trump said he would invoke the Insurrection Act “if it was necessary” but “so far it hasn’t been necessary.”

“But we have an Insurrection Act for a reason,” he told reporters at the White House Monday.

“If I had to enact it, I didn’t. I do that if people were being killed … and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I do that,” he said. “I mean, I want to make sure that people aren’t killed. We have to make sure that our cities are safe.”

Federal law enforcement has surged into Chicago, where Border Patrol agents performed a military-style raid on an apartment building ahead of Trump’s threats to deploy the National Guard into America’s third-largest city (REUTERS)

Trump has similarly surged federal law enforcement into several other Democratic-led states and cities, including Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., while Memphis is preparing to see troops on the ground within the coming days.

Last month, a federal judge in California ordered the withdrawal of military personnel from the Los Angeles area, after the president deployed National Guard troops and Marines to create what the judge called “a national police force with the president as its chief.”

Lawsuits from officials in Oregon and Illinois have similarly argued that the president is illegally calling up National Guard troops to stir up unrest to justify the military and federal law enforcement occupation of American cities.

The lawsuits also argue that the president is violating the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which prohibits the military from enforcing domestic law, as well as Tenth Amendment protections ensuring that police authority rests with the states, not the federal government.

The federal judge overseeing the Illinois lawsuit asked the Trump administration to pause any potential deployments for at least two days until he can review the case and a response from the defendants.

Trump has not ruled out invoking the Insurrection Act to occupy cities but he says it ‘hasn’t been necessary’ so far (Getty Images)

The National Guard reserve forces are composed of 54 organizations, including one for each state as well as Washington, D.C. and three U.S. territories. Service members may be called to service by a state’s governor, or the president, to respond to emergencies, though they continue to operate under a state’s command, and laws such as the Posse Comitatus Act prohibit federal troops from enforcing domestic law.

Invoking the Insurrection Act, however, would suspend the Posse Comitatus Act.

Without a governor’s consent, a president may invoke the act to fend off “unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion” or to quell “any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy” if the administration determines that federal law enforcement has been obstructed.

The last time the Insurrection Act was invoked was in 1992, when then-President George H.W. Bush sent active-duty troops into Los Angeles after citywide unrest followed the acquittal of four white officers in the assault of Rodney King.

The law is intended to combat a crisis that is beyond the scope of civilian law enforcement; officials in cities that are challenging Trump’s troop deployment have argued that state and local police are well-equipped to handle protests, and that the administration’s characterization of American cities ripped apart by “terrorism” is dangerously false.

The Insurrection Act does not impose “martial law,” which does not have an established definition under U.S. statute, though is generally understood as the federal takeover of local governments in an explicit breach of state sovereignty. There is no authority under any current law to do so.

“There is no invasion here. There is no insurrection here,” Pritzker said to open his remarks Monday.

“American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under threat of occupation from the United States military,” said Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

Trump’s own statements targeting Pritzker and Chicago officials “demonstrate this is not at all about an emergency,” he added. “This is a political targeting, utilizing our military.”