President Donald Trump suggested on Wednesday that he can deploy more branches of the military to U.S. cities if he invokes the Insurrection Act.
The Trump administration has deployed National Guard troops to a handful of Democratic-led cities to crack down on crime despite pushback from local and state leaders. He threatened to send “more than the National Guard” to U.S. cities during his long-winded speech to troops in Japan on Tuesday.
A reporter asked Trump about his comments on Wednesday while speaking to the press on Air Force One.
“But you know, I want to enact a certain act. I’m allowed to do it routinely. And other — about 50% of presidents have used that, as you know. And I’d be allowed to do whatever I want,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.
“But we haven’t chosen to do that, because we’re doing very well without it, but I’d be allowed to do that. You understand that. The courts wouldn’t get involved. Nobody would get involved. I could send the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. I could send anybody I wanted, but I haven’t done that because we’re doing so well without it,” he added.
His comments were met with fierce backlash from some critics.
One user on social media platform X wrote: “Threatening US cities with the marines is some crazy s—.”
Another user commented: “Donald Trump has declared war on the American people.”
During his speech in Japan on Tuesday, Trump even suggested sending the Space Command to U.S. cities to address crime. The Space Command “plans, executes, and integrates military spacepower into multi-domain global operations in order to deter aggression, defend national interests, and when necessary, defeat threats,” according to the military website.
“People don’t care if we send in our military, if we send in our National Guard, if we send in Space Command, they don’t care who the hell it is. They just want to be safe,” Trump said.
“Actually, it’s easy for us. It’s hard for them, and we have to have a little more help. It doesn’t matter, really, we could do as we want to do, but it would be nice to have more help from some of the Democrat governors that don’t mind,” he added.
Trump has faced some legal hurdles for deploying the National Guard to some cities, including Chicago and Portland. He has threatened to send the National Guard troops to only Democratic-led cities, despite crime rates falling in a number of those places.
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