In his continued effort to sound tough and to incite his base, President Trump said he would deploy federal forces to quell any potential riots on election night and “put them down very quickly” during an interview with Jeanine Pirro that will air this weekend, according to the Washington Post.
Trump didn’t specify what kinds of actions might prompt him to use federal forces. He has implicitly and explicitly stated that there would be unrest caused by his followers if he was not declared the victor in the upcoming elections, claiming that the election would be “rigged” against him.
Asked by Pirro if he would use armed federal personnel on Election Night, Trump said, “We have the right to do that. We have the power to do that, if we want. Look, it’s called insurrection. We just send in and we do it very easy. I mean, it’s very easy. I’d rather not do that, because there’s no reason for it, but if we had to, we’d do that and put it down within minutes, within minutes.”
Unfortunately for Trump, that’s not actually what an insurrection is, and the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of armed military to enforce domestic laws without a specific act of Congress, which would not likely be granted.