Trump's Insurrection Act Threat: A Historical Anomaly?

• Donald Trump threatens to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy US military forces to Minnesota, a move experts call a "flagrant abuse."
• The 19th-century law, used over two dozen times, allows presidents to use the military domestically, but rarely since the Civil Rights Movement.
• Past uses typically involved quelling widespread violence at local request, enforcing individual rights, or addressing outright insurrection like the Civil War.
• Experts argue Trump's situation is unique as the violence he seeks to end is allegedly created by federal officers he already sent to Minneapolis.
• The Act was first signed by George Washington in 1792 to mobilize state militias and later expanded, with Abraham Lincoln using it during the Civil War and presidents during the Civil Rights Movement to protect individual rights.

Why It Matters: Trump's proposed use of the Insurrection Act in Minnesota is unprecedented and widely criticized by legal experts.