Trump threatened to deploy the United States military against unrest in American cities

Date: 2020-06-01
Entry type: threat-of-force
Current status: Explicit conditional threat; the cited statement did not itself execute an Insurrection Act deployment.
Last reviewed: 2026-09-03

Entities and roles

June 2020 threat to deploy the United States military domesticallyconditional domestic military threat
Donald J. Trumppresident making the threat

Claims and evidence

factdocumented
Trump said that if governors did not deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers, he would deploy the United States military and “quickly solve the problem.”
- The White House: Statement by the PresidentParagraph beginning 'If a city or state refuses'