“We have the Insurrection Act for a reason. If it needs to be activated, I will do it,” President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on October 6. “If people are being killed and the courts, governors, or mayors stand in our way, I will absolutely take action.”
The Insurrection Act allows the president to deploy the U.S. military domestically to suppress uprisings or civil unrest. Trump’s remarks came after a federal judge in Oregon blocked his decision to send National Guard troops to Portland, while another judge in Illinois permitted similar action in Chicago.
Over the weekend, Trump approved the deployment of 700 National Guard troops to Chicago, Illinois, despite objections from Democratic leaders, including Governor JB Pritzker and the city’s mayor. The controversy deepened after reports that Texas, led by a Republican governor, was planning to send 200 National Guard troops to Illinois.
“They should stay out of Illinois,” Trump said. Governor Pritzker, meanwhile, accused federal immigration agents of “thuggish behavior,” excessive use of force, and unlawfully detaining U.S. citizens during raids in Chicago.
Illinois officials have filed a lawsuit to block the troop deployment in Chicago, but Judge April Perry declined to issue an injunction. She scheduled a full hearing for October 9 and requested additional information from the federal government.
In their lawsuit, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Chicago’s legal counsel accused Trump of using the U.S. military “to punish his political opponents.”
Governor Pritzker argued that Trump was “deliberately escalating violence” to create a pretext for invoking emergency powers. “The Trump administration is following a script: sow chaos, spread fear and confusion, and make peaceful protesters look like rioters by firing tear gas and flash grenades at them,” he said. “Why? To justify citing the Insurrection Act so he can send troops into our city.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the deployment plan, describing Chicago—the third-largest U.S. city—as “a war zone.”
Trump has similarly referred to Portland as “a war-torn city,” but federal judge Karin Immergut issued an injunction blocking the troop deployment in Oregon, writing that “the President’s decision was entirely unsupported by facts.”
“This is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law,” Judge Immergut—herself a Trump appointee—wrote.
The White House announced that the Trump administration would appeal the ruling.
A CBS poll released on October 5 found that 58% of Americans oppose deploying the National Guard to cities.
Illinois and Oregon are not the first states to enter legal battles with the Trump administration. Earlier, California filed a lawsuit after Trump sent troops to Los Angeles to quell protests sparked by immigration enforcement raids. That case remains pending in court.
The National Guard is the U.S. military’s reserve force, with units in every state and territory. Each state’s National Guard reports directly to its governor, who serves as the force’s commander-in-chief within that state. The National Guard is responsible for responding to domestic emergencies and can also be deployed overseas as part of the U.S. Army.