Tim Walz narrowly avoided this last week when he suggested that his government was "at war" with the federal government and that he might use National Guard troops to supervise ICE officers in the field. Shortly afterward, Walz issued a public appeal to activists not to "take the bait" that Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey had dangled all day after the shooting of Renee Good. "Don't allow them to deploy federal troops," Walz urged, "or invoke the Insurrection Act, or declare martial law!" Walz wailed:
🚨 HOLY CRAP! Tim Walz just said he's terrified President Trump has the power to invoke the INSURRECTION ACT in Minnesota
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 7, 2026
He's begging Democrats not to riot and "take the bait"
"Don't allow them to deploy federal troops or invoke the Insurrection Act, or declare martial law!"… pic.twitter.com/moBuU5LzLN
That managed to last until the next time ICE officers got attacked in Minneapolis. Late yesterday, a suspected illegal alien first fled from agents and then attacked one with a shovel before the injured ICE agent shot the suspect in the leg. Two others attempted to assault the same ICE agent, but backup arrived to restore order. The shooting prompted protests, and those escalated quickly into something else:
BREAKING: DHS statement to @FoxNews
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) January 15, 2026
At 6:50 PM CT, federal law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted traffic stop in Minneapolis of an illegal alien from Venezuela who was released into the country by Joe Biden in 2022.
In an attempt to evade arrest, the subject fled…
🚨 BREAKING: Minneapolis rioters successfully BROKE OPEN a weapons locker in a federal vehicle and STOLE A RIFLE and ammunition before fleeing
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 15, 2026
I captured the thief’s face and license plate on the getaway vehicle.
PLEASE SHARE and HELP IDENTIFY this POS.
I have forwarded this… pic.twitter.com/7rwfIsN7v6
Note well that police are nowhere to be seen in support of federal law enforcement. Instead, as David noted in our previous post, Walz took the opportunity to demand that the federal government end its alleged "occupation" of [checks notes] American territory. As Walz well knows, the federal government has jurisdiction to enforce federal law in all parts of the US regardless of whether the state and local governments approve or not. Suggesting that the state might resist the federal government from doing so by using its militia is about one step short of Fort Sumter.
Trump reminded Walz of that point this morning. Federal law and the Constitution allows the president to declare an insurrection when states and local jurisdictions attempt to defy federal authority, and the Insurrection Act offers far more plenary authority to intervene than Section 12406 does:
If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State. Thank you for you attention to this matter! President DJT
The Insurrection Act is the "break glass in case of emergency" option, but it's far from unprecedented. Since its passage in 1807, long before the Civil War truly cemented the Supremacy Clause into the fabric of American governance, presidents have invoked it more than two dozen times to deal with uprisings and threats to the execution of federal authority. The most recent use came in 1992, when George H.W. Bush invoked it in response to the riots in Los Angeles following the Rodney King beating trial that acquitted the officers involved. Tom Cotton urged Trump to use the Insurrection Act in 2020 to suppress the riots in Minneapolis and other cities following the death of George Floyd, but Trump chose to let the governors deal with the unrest themselves. (It did set off a chain of events that eventually put opinion editor Bari Weiss at the top of CBS News.)
This situation is much different and much more in line with the intent of the Insurrection Act. The riots in 2020 did not directly challenge federal authority, but rather focused on local policing issues. Some of the rioters chose federal buildings as targets, which is what prompted Cotton's New York Times op-ed urging Trump to act, and which the NYT retracted in a jaw-dropping act of journalistic cowardice, but state and local governments did not challenge federal authority. Over the past week in Minnesota, though, the riots and violence have specifically targeted federal law enforcement operations, and the governor and mayor have explicitly defied the Constitution in declaring that they can direct or deny access to ICE and other federal agencies in their state.
Trump's message on Truth Social gives Walz another opportunity to shut his mouth and allow the temperature to dial down in Minnesota. Trump may have passed on this option in 2020, when he faced re-election and had more pressing issues in the pandemic, but he's not going to sit on his hands for long while Walz and Frey claim to have superior jurisdiction over federal law enforcement. This is likely the last warning Walz will get before Trump orders troops into Minneapolis to put down this uprising – and unlike with Section 12406, the use of the Insurrection Act will leave Walz with no real options in court. And he knows it.
