Opponents of former President Donald Trump worry that he will invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 on the first day of a new administration should he win next year. Allies of former President Donald Trump reportedly have begun mapping out a Nixonian “enemies list” spelling out the individuals he would want to investigate or prosecute, The Washington Post reports.
“Much of the planning for a second term has been unofficially outsourced to a partnership of right-wing think tanks in Washington. Dubbed ‘Project 2025,’ the group is developing a plan, to include draft executive orders, that would deploy the military domestically under the Insurrection Act, according to a person involved in those conversations and internal communications reviewed by The Washington Post. The law, last updated in 1871, authorizes the president to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement,” the Post reported.
Trump Allies Concerned About Riots After Inauguration
Trump’s allies worry that rioting and civil disturbances akin to those that erupted following George Floyd’s death in police custody in 2020 could ensue. The former president considered invoking the Insurrection Act at the time but was talked out of it. President George H.W. Bush was the last to invoke the Insurrection Act. He used its authority to deploy Marines from Camp Pendelton, Calif., to quell the 1993 Los Angeles riots.
Those on Trump’s “enemies list” reportedly include former Attorney General Bill Barr, former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, ex-attorney Ty Cobb, and former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley. All of these individuals have publicly opposed him since Trump left office in 2021.
Trump also has said he would have a special prosecutor appointed who would look into alleged corruption by the Biden family. He allegedly plans to dispense with 50 years of formal policy aimed at preventing political prosecutions.
“It would resemble a banana republic if people came into office and started going after their opponents willy-nilly,” said Saikrishna Prakash, a constitutional law professor at the University of Virginia who studies executive power. “It’s hardly something we should aspire to.”
Trump supporters suggest that the Biden administration already crossed that Rubicon.
Trump Supporters: Biden Administration Has Enemies List
Some suggest that the Biden administration has already dispensed with equal protection under the law and has taken to prosecuting its political enemies while being lenient on its allies. Charges against participants in the George Floyd riots have been dropped while January 6 rioters who engaged in similar actions have received lengthy sentences despite the fact both groups engaged in heinous acts. This has led to accusations by Republicans that the Biden Justice Department already is doing to right-of-center opponents what the Post suggests that Trump allegedly did.
Trump’s lawyers alleged last month that Joe Biden is behind the current rash of prosecutions against him based on media reports. The former president faces 91 criminal charges across four cases.
The New York Times noted in March that Biden expressed frustration that Attorney General Merrick Garland was not being legally decisive enough against Trump.
“… Joe Biden pressured DOJ to pursue the nakedly political indictment in this case months before the FBI had even opened an investigation,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a motion to dismiss the case. “Less than a week before President Trump announced his candidacy for the Presidency in the 2024 election, Biden used the White House itself to tell anyone listening that he was ‘making sure’ that President Trump ‘does not become the next President again.’ Three days after President Trump formally announced his candidacy, the Special Counsel was put in place as part of a flawed effort to insulate Biden and his supporters from scrutiny of their obvious and illegal bias.”
The Trump attorneys continued, “These actions, which are demonstrated by, inter alia, Biden’s public statements and reports from the New York Times and Washington Post based on leaks from participants in the investigation, require further inquiry and dismissal of the indictment.”
Republicans have noted that whistleblowers have alleged that the Justice Department deferred investigations against the Bidens while throwing the book at Trump.
Getting even would not be out of character for Trump. The Trump campaign deflected questions about the rumors.
“President Trump is focused on crushing his opponents in the primary election and then going on to beat Crooked Joe Biden,” Cheung said. “President Trump has always stood for law and order, and protecting the Constitution.
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
