IRONY: Trump proposes insurrection act on protesters for his church photo op

According to a report by The New York Times, aides to former President Donald Trump drafted an order last year that would have allowed him to invoke the Insurrection Act amid the ongoing protests and civil unrest following the police killing of George Floyd. The document was reportedly prepared on June 1, 2020, after Trump expressed his desire to deploy thousands of active-duty troops throughout Washington, D.C., to respond to the protests. However, then-Attorney General William Barr, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley talked him out of the plan. Some Trump aides still went ahead and prepared a draft order just in case Trump decided to go through with invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807, which allows the president to deploy the U.S.  

military personnel and National Guard troops throughout the country to quell waves of civil disorder or insurrection. The act has only been invoked twice in the past 40 years. Trump denied that he wanted to deploy troops on U.S. citizens, and a Trump adviser reportedly told The New York Times that the former president rejected invoking the Insurrection Act when it was proposed by some aides.