Trump Blurts Out Real Reason for Insurrection Act Threat--and It's Dark

[Miles Archer]

Trump Blurts Out Real Reason for Insurrection Act Threat—and It’s Dark

Greg Sargent/
January 21, 2026
RICH FANTASY LIFE

He thinks it lets him abuse his power however he wants. It’s up to the courts—and the American people—to show him otherwise.

https://newrepublic.com/article/205504/trump-insurrection-act-threat-courts

Do President Trump’s advisers actively want him to act like a dictator? At the very least, there’s plainly a deep split inside Trumpworld on this question. As deranged as it seems, one faction clearly believes Trump absolutely should project unconstrained tyrannical power, to frighten ordinary voters and institutions into compliance, while another faction thinks acting like a Mad King risks a huge electoral rebuke and, by extension, that normal political patterns still apply.

You can see this tension in Trump’s ugly new comments about invoking the Insurrection Act, which would empower him to use the military for domestic law enforcement. Lately he’s suggested that he might not invoke it after all. And in an interview flagged by Aaron Rupar, Trump said this again.

Asked if he sees the act as “necessary,” Trump said: “I don’t think it is yet. It might be at some point.” Trump added that other presidents have invoked it, and said: “It does make life a lot easier. You don’t go through the court system. It’s just a much easier thing to do.”

Emphasis added. Trump seems to think invoking the Insurrection Act means he’s no longer constrained by the courts. That’s nonsense. Yes, the act would allow him to deploy the military to carry out things that “law enforcement” (a grotesque misnomer for ICE) is doing in places like Minneapolis amid his immigration crackdown. And given that Trump has already sanctioned extraordinary abuses of power—detentions of U.S. citizens, warrantless arrests, excessive violence against protesters, including the occasional killing—empowering the military to do all this is an unsettling prospect.

[SSJVegeta]

1. Not so much dark as it is stupid

Which in turn results in something dark because stupid shit like this is never supposed to be a reality.


...one would think

[Qutzupalotl]

2. We've seen what he does when he thinks something is true.

He acts as though it were true, gets people to accept it, and people just bow and scrape at every step, and give him what he wants. Example: presidential immunity.

The courts can stop him, but often after much damage has been done. Example: the East Wing.

My point is, if he thinks he can do whatever he wants because blah blah Article II, he will try, and that makes him especially dangerous.

[groundloop]

3. I've got a better explanation ..... E-P-S-T-E-I-N

When's the last time there was a new story about tRump's involvement with Epstein? Or the fact that 99% of the legally required release of the "Epstein files" has not happened?

[Bluetus]

4. Let us be clear. In the lifetimes of 80% of Americans,

the Insurrection Act has only been used 3 times. All three were at the explicit request of Governors. Two were due to instability following weather disasters, and the third was the LA Riots after the Rodney King beating.

To find a case where the President used it without a Governor's request, you have to go back to the 1960s where Eisenhower and Kennedy used it to enforce the federal desegregation laws.

[eppur_se_muova]

5. I don't know which is worse -- Trmp's obvious dishonesty, corruption, and cruelty, or the clear evidence that he ...

just doesn't know what he's doing the overwhelming majority of the time.

He just makes lots of threats, notes which ones get a reaction, and tosses out some new ones. No principles, no policies, no plans, just announcing whatever the Hell he feels like will get him attention on any given day.

[Ruby the Liberal]

6. November could be another log on that fire

My blood about ran cold watching his reaction to Zelenskyy explaining that their constitution puts elections 'on hold' if the country is at war.

trump was pretty amped up about this. Since we don't do that by statute, Lord knows he was going to find something to justify this line of manufactured bullshit.

Venezuela, Greenland, Canada, ICEholes triggering a civil war - he's throwing everything at it, IMO.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. MaddowBlog-'Sometimes you need a dictator': Trump shines new light on his political philosophy

‘Sometimes you need a dictator’: Trump shines new light on his political philosophy

‘Sometimes you need a dictator’: Trump shines new light on his political philosophy - MS NOW apple.news/AYutFvuXcT-W...

— LOUISE Rose (@louise0202.bsky.social) 2026-01-23T14:17:24.360Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/sometimes-you-need-a-dictator-trump-shines-new-light-on-his-political-philosophy

While many observers were repulsed by Donald Trump’s ridiculous speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the president boasted after he left the podium that “we got great reviews.” He did not say from whom.

But the Republican didn’t stop there, going on to suggest that he’d somehow managed to subvert the audience’s expectations.

Trump: "Sometimes you need a dictator."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-01-21T18:00:16.139Z

....Up until very recently, it would’ve been considered a political story of dramatic significance for a sitting American president to say — out loud, in public, on the record — that he believes dictators are ever preferable to self-rule. But Trump’s comment went largely overlooked, in part because the rhetoric was overshadowed by other developments and in part because much of the political world is simply accustomed to the Republican’s overt hostility to democracy.

That said, I remain convinced that it’s best not to brush past these declarations too quickly. The president’s comment offered a fresh peek into a political philosophy he appears to embrace without embarrassment: By his own admission, Trump believes there are some conditions in which freedom should be discarded and replaced by something a bit more totalitarian.

This is the same Republican who has more than once talked about creating a temporary American “dictatorship” that he expects to lead. He has promoted images of himself in a crown. He has made Napoleonic declarations such as “he who saves his country violates no law.” He’s talked about “terminating” parts of the Constitution that stand in the way of his ambitions. He’s “joked” about canceling elections. He’s freely admitted that he believes (what passes for) his alleged conscience is “the only thing that can stop me.” He’s expressed admiration for foreign authoritarians — not despite their despotism, but because of their despotism.

To the extent that there was ever a serious debate about Trump’s authoritarian impulses, the president keeps offering unambiguous answers to the question.