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Trump threatens to use Insurrection Act to send the military to Minneapolis after ICE killing

Trump took to social media to threaten the use of the military against the protests happening in Minneapolis.

ICE agent pepper spraying protester

A Border Patrol Tactical Unit agent sprays pepper spray into the face of a protester attempting to block an immigration officer vehicle from leaving the scene where a woman was shot and killed by a federal agent earlier, in Minneapolis, Minn. on Wednesday, January 7, 2026.

Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images

Donald Trump threatened in a social media post on Thursday to invoke the Insurrection Act to stop protests in Minneapolis after the killing of queer woman Renee Good by ICE on January 7.

ICE officer Jonathan Ross shot Good in the head after a brief exchange. Good and her wife had been observing ICE agents in their neighborhood at the time.


Since Good's killing, thousands have taken to the streets to demand that the Trump administration remove immigration agents from the city, brought in as part of Trump's crackdown on immigration across the country and on alleged fraud in the state.

It also comes a day after one federal immigration agent shot a Minneapolis man who authorities say attacked the agent with a shovel.

What is the Insurrection Act? 

Trump has threatened to use the law before, which allows for the deployment of the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement that can then be used to stop uprisings.

Normally, the military cannot act the same as law enforcement. The Insurrection Act allows troops to participate in some of those actions. The law allows for the military to make arrests, perform searches, and take other measures normally reserved for police and other law enforcement agencies.

It was signed into law by Thomas Jefferson in 1807, but The Guardian notes that the current Insurrection Act is made up of statutes that define how the military can be used as such enforcement.

What did Trump say?

“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 said in social media post.

Many presidents have not used the Insurrection Act.

When was the last time the Insurrection Act was used? 

The most recent use of the act was in 1992 by President George HW Bush during the riots in Los Angeles after four white police officers were acquitted after being filmed beating Rodney King, a Black man.

Trump has threatened to use it before

Trump has said he'd invoke the Insurrection Act. As The Guardian points out, the most recent time last October, when Trump threatened to use it in Portland, Oregon.

Before that, he threatened to use it in June after California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued to block the military from assisting ICE raids in Los Angeles.

The outlet also notes that he also threatened to use it in 2020 in D.C. to stop protests after the killing of George Floyd by a police officer, also in Minneapolis.

The same lawyers who represented the family of George Floyd will be representing Renee Nicole Good's relatives, launching a civil investigation into her killing.

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