Does Trump see crimes as insurrection? Vance drops big hint on 'all options'

US Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday that the White House is talking about invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow the deployment of military troops on US soil to quell domestic unrest. When asked by NBC News’s Meet the Press whether President Donald Trump was seriously considering invoking the emergency power to deploy National Guard forces and even the US military in domestic settings, Vance said he is keeping his options open.

“The president’s looking at all of his options,” he said, adding that “we are talking about this because crime has gotten out of control in our cities”. Trump has been attempting to use federal National Guard forces in Democratic-run cities, but has faced challenges in the courts, most notably in Chicago in recent days.

More from World

Will fire Americans till Democrats blink: Trump's message on shutdown Is Trump taking America back to the 1800s with his immigration war and military use?

The vice president’s ominous remark over the matter came just days after Trump referred to the Insurrection Act from the Oval Office, bluntly stating: “If I had to enact it, I would do that.” It is pertinent to note that Military forces are forbidden from engaging in law enforcement duties on home soil.

However, under the Insurrection Act, which was signed in 1807, the president can deploy them domestically in cases of insurrection or rebellion, violence that is preventing the functioning of federal laws.

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

As Trump counts down govt shutdown, Congress leaders blame one another for fund deadlock

India must factor nuclear threats into its security calculus: CDS Chauhan

Was this ever used before?

It is pertinent to note that the power was first used during the 1960s civil rights movement amid clashes over the desegregation of the South. Since then, the measure has been rarely activated. The last time an American president used the measure was in 1992, when the governor of California requested military aid from George HW Bush in response to civil unrest in Los Angeles.

In the Sunday interview, Vance said that Trump “hasn’t felt he needed to” invoke the Insurrection Act up to this point. However, he confirmed that it was among the tactics being considered as the administration continues to be blocked in federal courts from deploying federalised National Guard forces in Democratic-run cities.

The federal courts have blocked the White House from using troops in Oregon and Illinois. On Thursday, a federal judge prohibited the deployment of federalised National Guard personnel in Chicago, admonishing the administration that she had “seen no credible evidence that there is a danger of a rebellion in the state of Illinois”.

Vance told NBC News that options such as the Insurrection Act were being considered because “there are places in Chicago where people are afraid to take their children … for fear of gun violence, for fear of gang drive-by shootings”. In a separate interview with ABC News, Vance said that Chicago had been given over to “lawlessness and gangs” and had a murder rate “that rivals the worst places in the third world”. Overall, tensions between the Trump administration and the Democrats over this matter have intensified.