'Not much in the law' can damper Trump’s plan to send 'tanks rolling down Main Street' if he wins: report

27 November 2023

While the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 limits the use of the military as a law enforcement tool within the United States, there is an exception to it: the Insurrection Act of 1807 — which, according to a report published by the Washington Post on November 6, Donald Trump plans to invoke on his first day in office and use against possible protesters if he wins the 2024 election.

Many of Trump's critics have been warning that the MAGA movement's Project 2025 agenda, including plans to take revenge against his enemies, would transform him into a full-fledged dictator. Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney and fixer, has said that he would fear for his personal safety if Trump returned to the White House and would seek political asylum in another country.

In an article published on November 27, the Associated Press' Gary Fields reports that Trump, during a recent campaign speech in Iowa, vowed to use the military in major cities he considers "crime dens."

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"Trump has not spelled out precisely how he might use the military during a second term, although he and his advisers have suggested they would have wide latitude to call up units," Fields reports. "While deploying the military regularly within the country's borders would be a departure from tradition, the former president already has signaled an aggressive agenda if he wins, from mass deportations to travel bans imposed on certain Muslim-majority countries."

Fields notes that the Insurrection Act "allows presidents to call on reserve or active-duty military units to respond to unrest in the states, an authority that is not reviewable by the courts."

Joseph Nunn of the Brennan Center for Justice told AP, "The principal constraint on the president's use of the Insurrection Act is basically political — that presidents don't want to be the guy who sent tanks rolling down Main Street. There's not much really in the law to stay the president's hand."

Fields points out, however, that "attempts to invoke the Insurrection Act and use the military for domestic policing would likely elicit pushback from the Pentagon."

Read The Associated Press' full report at this link.

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