AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The Pentagon has readied 1,500 active-duty soldiers for possible deployment to Minnesota, according to several news outlets. NPR has not been able to independently confirm those reports. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz mobilized the state's National Guard yesterday to help local law enforcement in case they're needed. President Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minneapolis, which would allow him to deploy the military to assist federal law enforcement. To help us understand all of this, we're joined by NPR's Kat Lonsdorf who's in Minneapolis. Good morning.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning.
RASCOE: So what can you tell us about these 1,500 troops that the Pentagon has put on standby?
LONSDORF: Yeah. So NPR did reach out to the Pentagon to confirm those reports. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell did get back to us and said, quote, "the Department of War is always prepared to execute the orders of the commander-in-chief if called upon." You know, that doesn't exactly confirm those reports. According to those reports, those troops are assigned to two infantry battalions with the Army's 11th airborne division. That's based in Alaska and specializes in cold weather operations. Just to note, it's been very cold here in Minneapolis - snow, that kind of thing. Those units have been placed on prepare-to-deploy orders in case the situation here escalates, officials said. But to be clear, the situation on the ground here has been relatively quiet the past few days. There were some protests yesterday, including an anti-immigration event planned by a conservative activist and January 6 rioter with a counter protest also planned. But it was very small, mostly counter protesters letting that activist know he was not welcome in the city, and it dissipated fairly quickly. Minnesota officials here have been very clear in recent days, urging calm among the residents.
RASCOE: What does it mean that Governor Walz has mobilized the state National Guard?
LONSDORF: Yeah. There was a lot of concern leading up to that protest yesterday that it might escalate. It was around the same time that Walz mobilized the Guard here to support state patrol. Walz had had the Guard on standby, so this is basically just one step up from that. A spokesperson for the Guard clarified that troops are not deployed to the streets at this time but that they are, quote, "staged and ready to respond."
One thing I found was interesting - in a post on X, the Minnesota Guard said that if troops are deployed by Walz, they'll be wearing bright yellow reflective vests over their uniforms to help - to, quote, "help distinguish them from other agencies in similar uniforms." This is different from other places in the country where National Guard troops have been federalized by President Trump and deployed to cities, and local residents have often said it's difficult to tell them apart from federal agents.
RASCOE: So President Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minneapolis...
LONSDORF: Yeah.
RASCOE: ...As recently as a few days ago.
LONSDORF: Yeah.
RASCOE: Tell us more about that.
LONSDORF: So the Insurrection Act is a federal law. It's around 200 years old. It would allow Trump to take control of the state's National Guard or deploy active-duty forces here in response to, quote, "rebellion" and then allow those troops to assist federal law enforcement. Trump has threatened it - Trump had threatened it last week and then walked that threat back the next day, saying that he didn't see, quote, "any reason" to invoke it right now. But that threat is still hanging in the air here and certainly now that troops are reportedly on standby. Trump has talked about invoking the Insurrection Act many times, especially in recent months for various reasons. So this isn't something we haven't heard from him before. But many of the legal experts I've talked to in the past few days think it's just way too early to be talking about the Insurrection Act here in Minneapolis, that the situation on the ground here right now does not warrant it. Here's Joseph Nunn. He's an attorney at the Brennan Center's Liberty and National Security Program.
JOSEPH NUNN: The Insurrection Act is a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency type of tool. It is designed for situations in which civilian authorities are overwhelmed by some crisis, not there are protests, not even there are violent protests.
LONSDORF: He says he thinks invoking it right now would be a misuse of the law.
RASCOE: Now, President Trump - he often says that the Insurrection Act has been invoked by other presidents frequently.
LONSDORF: Yeah.
RASCOE: Is that true?
LONSDORF: It's not exactly true. It has certainly been used before, most recently by George H.W. Bush in 1992, during the LA riots which killed dozens of people, caused a lot of destruction. But that was at the request of California's governor. In the modern era, the Insurrection Act has only been used for either civil rights enforcement or responding to civil unrest at the request of the state's governor. What would be different about this time, if Trump does invoke it, is that it would check neither of those boxes. Governor Walz has made it very clear that more federal help is not needed here. Another thing to note is that the Insurrection Act is generally invoked as a last resort when officials have exhausted every other possible option.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Minneapolis. Thank you, Kat.
LONSDORF: Thanks so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
