Donald Trump is not a man of restraint. He is not a man of nuance. He is a man who looks at 200-year-old laws like a child finding a gun in grandma’s attic and thinks, “Cool, let’s see what this does.”
That’s why we need to stop asking whether he’ll invoke the Insurrection Act—and start asking what he’ll do after he sends troops into American cities.
Because make no mistake: he’s going to do it. He’s laying the groundwork in plain sight. He’s marching us down a path paved in executive orders, fear-mongering language about “invasions,” and the political theater of military pageantry. And while cable news panels gently debate the “optics,” he’s flipping through the Constitution like a Waffle House menu at 3 a.m.—greasy fingers, bloodshot eyes, and no idea what he’s ordering.
THE ACT ISN’T A NUCLEAR OPTION—IT’S A LADDER
Section 6B of Trump’s day-one executive order didn’t just float the Insurrection Act—it invited it to dinner. He told the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to draft him a report—due April 20—that includes recommendations for achieving “complete operational control” of the southern border, “including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.”
This isn’t a casual mention. It’s the escape hatch for a failed agenda.
The economy is tanking. The stock market is puking blood after Trump’s idiotic tariffs on everyone from China to the barely-inhabited Heard and McDonald Islands. His immigration dragnet is deporting U.S. citizens, green card holders, and Puerto Ricans—which, for the uninitiated, are also U.S. citizens.
He’s cornered. And like every narcissistic coward in history, he’s looking for a dramatic exit that makes him feel powerful. Enter the military.
CALL IT WHAT IT IS: A SIEGE
The Insurrection Act was last invoked in 1992 during the Rodney King riots. Before that? Civil rights backlash. Racist governors. Mass unrest. It’s supposed to be used sparingly—not as a fallback plan when your approval ratings are drowning in sewage and your “border war” turns out to be a racist fever dream held together with chicken wire and Tucker Carlson’s tears.
But this is Trump. He doesn’t care about precedent. He doesn’t care about legality. He cares about force. He cares about spectacle. And he knows that Fox News will have a military-style ticker and a countdown clock running by the morning if he does it.
He doesn’t want order. He wants obedience.
BLUE STATES ARE THE TARGET. NOT JUST THE BORDER.
This won’t stop at the Rio Grande. It’ll bleed into cities like Chicago, New York, Los Angeles—anywhere he can point and scream, “They’re not cooperating!” Sanctuary cities are already marked for defunding and harassment. Sending in troops will be sold as “necessary,” “temporary,” “surgical.”
But it’ll feel like a military occupation. It will be one.
Because Trump doesn’t draw lines between immigrant and citizen. Between protester and threat. Between rule of law and rule by law. If he sees dissent, he sees disloyalty. If he sees a brown face, he sees a target. If he sees pushback, he sees a reason to escalate.
This isn’t policy. It’s psychological warfare, and every executive order is a new front line.
IT’S NOT JUST STUPID. IT’S DELIBERATE.
Pundits keep calling his actions “stupid.” That’s half right.
They’re stupid in method—like using dynamite to fix a leaky faucet. But they’re brilliant in design. Trump understands the authoritarian playbook: demonize outsiders, declare an emergency, expand executive power, and when the courts balk, send in the soldiers and dare someone to stop you.
He’s not trying to win hearts and minds. He’s trying to shatter the rules so thoroughly that even your average centrist shrugs and says, “Well, maybe we do need some kind of crackdown.”
This is fascism with a spray tan. And it’s working.
DON’T ASK “WILL HE?” ASK “WHEN?”
We’ve already seen the soft rollout:
The Alien Enemies Act used to deport Venezuelan men with zero due process.
Mass detentions that included American citizens and legal residents.
Border rhetoric that calls families “invaders” and toddlers “national security threats.”
Legal gymnastics so deranged they’d make Joseph Goebbels blink twice.
What do you think comes next?
The Insurrection Act won’t be the climax. It’ll be the midpoint—the moment where we all realize that this isn’t about immigration anymore. It’s about control. Fear. Power. And punishing every last person who stood in his way.
ONE LAST QUESTION: WHAT HAPPENS AFTER?
Let’s say he does it. Sends the troops. Claims it’s “temporary.” Shoots a protester. Blames the mayor. Calls it a deep state plot. Suspends something. Anything. What’s left to stop him?
The courts? Not if five justices keep playing dumb.
Congress? Not with Speaker Johnson wielding his plastic sword like a birthday party clown guarding a bouncy castle.
The media? Not unless they can break their addiction to euphemisms like “polarizing” and “controversial.”
Us? Maybe. But only if we stop pretending this is a political debate and start treating it like what it is:
An escalating authoritarian power grab by a man who has already promised to be a dictator on day one.
The only question is whether we’re still watching the parade when the tanks roll in.
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