A question that once belonged to the realm of dystopian fiction now demands urgent public debate. What happens if Donald Trump invokes the Insurrection Act to enforce his rule?
We’re closer to that possibility than many of us realize. In January, on the day he was sworn in for his second term, Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to evaluate the use of the Insurrection Act to achieve “complete operational control” of the southern border. Their report is due by April 20, just two days from now.
Officially, the rationale is border security. But the language of the directive and Trump’s own escalating rhetoric suggest something more ominous: the preparation of legal cover to deploy U.S. troops against civilian populations, including protestors, under the vague premise of restoring “order.”
This is not a hypothetical threat. It is the playbook of strongmen throughout history, using chaos, or manufacturing it, to justify authoritarian crackdowns. And it’s one that Trump has been telegraphing since his first term. We just haven’t been listening closely enough.
The Insurrection Act, passed in 1807, allows a president to deploy the military within U.S. borders in response to rebellion or domestic unrest. Historically, it’s been used sparingly, during the Civil War, to enforce desegregation in the South, and in the 1992 Los Angeles riots. But even then, its use was controversial. It bypasses the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits the military’s role in domestic law enforcement. In effect, it gives the president unilateral power to send soldiers into the streets.
That would be dangerous in the hands of any president. But in the hands of a man who has spent years undermining democratic institutions, delegitimizing the press, demonizing protestors, and stacking the military and judiciary with loyalists, it becomes something far worse: a trigger for authoritarian rule.
Trump has made it clear he sees dissent not as a right to be protected, but as a threat to be neutralized. His response to protests during his first term was to call for “dominating the streets” and to urge governors to “get tough.” He tried to invoke the Insurrection Act in 2020 during Black Lives Matter demonstrations but was talked down, barely, by military leaders who still understood the danger.
Those leaders are gone now.
Many were purged during Trump’s return to power, replaced with appointees more aligned with his worldview. The civilian leadership at the Pentagon is no longer a firewall. It’s a fuse.
If Trump were to invoke the Insurrection Act this time, who would stop him?
Not Congress. Even if both chambers passed legislation revoking or limiting the Act, Trump would veto it, and a two-thirds override is nearly impossible in today’s fractured political landscape.
Not the courts. Trump has already demonstrated a willingness to ignore or delay court rulings that don’t go his way. And with the Supreme Court stacked 6-3 in his favor, any legal challenge to his authority could be delayed, weakened, or outright dismissed.
Not the states. Governors might try to resist the federalization of their National Guard units, but their power is limited once the president invokes emergency authority. They can slow things down, but they can’t stop the train.
That leaves the military. And while there is still hope that rank-and-file officers would resist unlawful orders, the culture of civilian obedience runs deep. Refusing a direct order from the commander-in-chief, especially one cloaked in a veneer of legality, would require extraordinary courage and coordination.
In short, there is no clear institutional mechanism to prevent Trump from doing this if he’s determined. The checks on his power in this scenario are informal, delayed, and potentially ineffective. That’s the real crisis, not that the president has too much power, but that we have too few defenses when he chooses to abuse it.
Some will argue this is all speculative. That we shouldn't panic over things that haven't happened yet. But that logic is precisely what has allowed Trump to push boundaries for nearly a decade. Every time he has done something outrageous, firing inspectors general, pressuring election officials, inciting a violent insurrection, we’ve told ourselves it couldn’t get worse. And then it did.
Now he’s hinting at using the military against his own people. And we are once again tempted to look away, to trust that someone, somewhere, will intervene. But what if no one does?
The Insurrection Act is a law written in a different century, for a different kind of country. It was never meant to be a tool for suppressing democratic dissent or reinforcing authoritarian rule. If it is used that way, it won’t just undermine our Constitution, it will erase the idea that power in this country flows from the people.
We must demand more than statements of concern from lawmakers. Congress must act, now, to clarify and restrict the conditions under which the Act can be invoked. Military leaders must reaffirm their oath to the Constitution, not to any one man. And the public must be ready to respond, not with violence, but with the full power of peaceful, mass resistance.
This isn’t alarmism. It’s foresight. If we wait until the troops are in the streets, it will already be too late.
Disclaimer: Jim Powers writes Opinion Columns. Views expressed in this editorial are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of Polk County Publishing or its affiliates. In the interest of transparency, I am politically Left Libertarian.
