Hardline Republicans push reluctant Trump to escalate tactics in Minneapolis

The most hardline conservative bloc of House Republicans is calling on President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota if he deems it necessary, days after federal agents in Minneapolis shot and killed a second U.S. citizen in a matter of weeks — and just hours after the president, referring to protesters, declared, “you can’t have guns.”

In an unsigned letter to Trump, the House Freedom Caucus said it was encouraging the president to use “all tools necessary — including the Insurrection Act,” to “maintain order in the face of unlawful obstructions and assemblages that prevent the enforcement of laws by the United States.”

The Minneapolis protests have been largely peaceful.

The Freedom Caucus also urged the president to maintain “necessary law enforcement including ICE in Minneapolis.” Some have suggested that Trump may have been looking for an off-ramp, or a means to wind down “Operation Metro Surge.”

The group also called on Trump to end funding for sanctuary cities, and to ensure that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is "fully funded along with all remaining appropriations bills."

Democrats in the Senate are demanding that the DHS funding bill be separated from other legislative funding vehicles, which would require unlikely House approval.

The Freedom Caucus, led by hard-core conservative Republican Andy Harris, threatened to take extreme action should Democrats, they said, shut down the federal government. A partial government shutdown is possible after Friday.