President Donald Trump has said he can send the Navy, Air Force and Marines into US cities to do “whatever I want” and the courts won’t stop him.
As tensions mounted over the administration’s deployment of the National Guard, Trump warned that he could “routinely” invoke the Insurrection Act to circumvent the legal system if he wants to use all weapons against his own citizens.
“If I want to make a law, I’m allowed to,” he said.
“We didn’t choose to do it because we’re fine without it, but I would be allowed to do it, you know, right? And the courts wouldn’t get involved. Nobody would get involved, and I could send in the army, the navy, the air force, the marines. I could send anybody.”
Donald Trump has stepped up his rhetoric on the Sedition Act. / Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
The comments represent a dramatic escalation from the president and have drawn widespread criticism that he is trying to play out a “dictator fantasy.”
In theory, he would face restrictions such as the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of federal armed forces to enforce domestic laws. This applies directly to the Army and Air Force, and by policy to the Navy and Marine Corps.
But the comment is not the only time in recent weeks that Trump has raised the alarm about the extent of his power.
Just this month, the president also said he could continue to kill suspected drug smugglers without congressional approval, claimed he was the country’s “chief lawmaker” as he called on the Justice Department to prosecute his enemies, and suggested through his spokesman that he could tear down the Jefferson Memorial without legal authority.
Trump’s latest remarks came aboard Air Force One during his trip to Asia, where he is scheduled to meet with China’s authoritarian leader, Xi Jinping.
Asked what he meant when he previously said he was willing to send more than the National Guard to American cities, he said: “Of course I would if it was necessary. If it was necessary, I would do it if it was necessary, but there’s no need to. We’re doing a great job without it.”
But tensions have flared in cities like Chicago, where Trump is currently trying to deploy the National Guard because, the administration says, local police have failed to respond to “mob violence” by people protesting his immigration enforcement policies.
U.S. Border Patrol agents fight with members of the community in the 10500 block of South Avenue M on October 14, 2025 in Chicago. / Chicago Tribune / Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune / Tribune News Service via Getty Images
The situation became particularly acute over the weekend, when federal agents used tear gas in a residential neighborhood for a fourth straight day on Saturday, disrupting a children’s Halloween parade and forcibly arresting an elderly man for obstructing the arrest of another man by ICE agents.
“Tear gas is now a tool that ICE will use not just at protest sites, but on regular street corners, when church is out, when school is in session, when patients are trying to get to the emergency room,” Illinois state Sen. Graciela Guzman told The Daily Beast.
“These are all scenarios that I’ve faced directly or that people around me in my community have faced in just the last two weeks.”
The Insurrection Act of 1807 is a federal law that allows the president to deploy the U.S. armed forces or federalize a state’s National Guard troops to suppress what he deems to be an insurrection against the United States.
The president floated the idea of using the act to combat civil unrest during his campaign to return to the White House last year, but has not called for it until now.
His latest comments have been widely condemned online.
“This is a dictator’s fantasy,” said veteran political analyst Evaristus Odinikaese. “The president can’t just ‘do whatever I want,’ because the Posse Comitatus, the Sedition Act, and the courts impose real limits.”
“He talks about the invasion of American citizens like it’s the beaches of Normandy,” wrote another X user.