Trump won’t take using the Insurrection Act in Portland off the table

Now, with nightly violence unfolding in places like Portland, Oregon, as Antifa’s crime spree exacerbates violent protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, President Donald Trump isn’t ruling out invoking the Insurrection Act, as he deemed the city “a burning hellhole.”

“Portland is on fire. Portland’s been on fire for years,” the commander-in-chief said Monday from the Oval Office while taking questions from the press after an event approving the Ambler Road Project in Alaska. “I really think that’s really criminal insurrection.”

When specifically asked about whether or not he would utilize the Insurrection Act, which grants the president authority to federalize the National Guard and deploy the U.S. military domestically — save for situations enforcing civil or criminal law — Trump maintained, “So far, it hasn’t been necessary.”

“But we have an Insurrection Act for a reason. If I had to enact it, I’d do that,” he went on. “If people were being killed, and courts were holding us up or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I’d do that. I mean, I want to make sure that people aren’t killed. We have to make sure that our cities are safe.”