President Trump said Friday there is no reason for him to invoke the Insurrection Act, one day after he threatened to use the law in the wake of demonstrations in Minneapolis.
“I don’t think there’s any reason right now to use it, but if I needed it, I’d use it,” Trump told reporters at the White House before leaving for Palm Beach, Fla.
Trump threatened to use the 1807 law on Thursday following a shooting involving a federal officer.
“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, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
That post came hours after a federal officer shot and injured a man Wednesday evening in Minneapolis, sparking the latest wave of protests in the city.
The shooting further inflamed tensions in a city already on edge after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good last week.
The Insurrection Act allows the president to send military troops to an area in an effort to tamp down civil unrest. The last time it was invoked was the early 1990s.
This is not the first time Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act. Last October, the president told reporters he was “allowed” to use the measure if the courts denied his move to send the National Guard to U.S. cities.