Experts in constitutional law and the military say the Insurrection Act gives presidents tremendous power with few restraints. Recent statements by former President Donald Trump raise questions about how he might use it if he wins another term.

Campaigning in Iowa this year, Donald Trump said he was prevented during his presidency from using the military to quell violence in primarily Democratic cities and states.

Calling New York City and Chicago “crime dens,” the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination told his audience, “The next time, I’m not waiting. One of the things I did was let them run it and we’re going to show how bad a job they do,” he said. “Well, we did that. We don’t have to wait any longer.”

Trump has not spelled out precisely how he might use the military during a second term, although he and his advisers have suggested they would have wide latitude to call up units. While deploying the military regularly within the country’s borders would be a departure from tradition, the former president already has signaled an aggressive agenda if he wins, from mass deportations to travel bans imposed on certain Muslim-majority countries.

A law first crafted in the nation’s infancy would give Trump as commander in chief almost unfettered power to do so, military and legal experts said in a series of interviews.

    • pseudorandom
      7•7 months ago

      Until weighted voting is possible, the system is really only setup for two parties.

      • @Mirshe
        5•7 months ago

        A third party might, MIGHT have a chance if any of them bothered to run at the local or state levels. Since none of them ever DO, they have little chance of communicating their party’s values to the rest of the country at large, or building the broad base of support necessary.

        • @Sylver
          6•7 months ago

          At some point you have to play the game by the rules in order to dictate future rules. This is why I vote Democrat while being one of the largest critics/protesters of democratic choices

    • @TrickDacy
      4•7 months ago

      The only nonsense here is this tired old broken shitty logic that if you throw your vote away, that it could ever for a moment have a snowball’s chance in hell of helping anyone but the Republican