Tensions escalate as Trump threatens Insurrection Act, Blanche accuses Minnesota governor of ‘terrorism’

President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to send in the U.S. military as tensions intensify in Minneapolis following a second shooting in a week involving a federal officer amid Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the city.

“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,” Trump wrote in a social media post.

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz responded with a direct appeal to Trump to tone down the rhetoric.

“I am making a direct appeal to the President: Let’s turn the temperature down. Stop this campaign of retribution. This is not who we are. And an appeal to Minnesotans: I know this is scary. We can — we must — speak out loudly, urgently, but also peacefully. We cannot fan the flames of chaos. That’s what he wants,” Walz posted on X.

On Wednesday night, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both Democrats, needed to be stopped from “terrorism.”

“Minnesota insurrection is a direct result of a FAILED governor and a TERRIBLE mayor encouraging violence against law enforcement. It’s disgusting,” Blanche posted on X. “Walz and Frey — I’m focused on stopping YOU from your terrorism by whatever means necessary. This is not a threat. It’s a promise.”

ABC News has reached out to Walz and Frey’s offices for comment on Blanche’s statement.

The deputy attorney general’s blunt post came after Walz earlier on Wednesday evening had issued a sharp rebuke of the federal government’s law enforcement presence after a federal officer shot a person who they said had fled a traffic stop and then, along with two other people, began attacking the officer.

The shooting came one week after Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother, was fatally shot by an ICE agent. The Department of Homeland Security has said that Good was allegedly attempting to run over law enforcement officers, a claim disputed by local officials.

“I know you’re angry” Walz wrote Wednesday night on X. “I’m angry. What Donald Trump wants is violence in the streets. But Minnesota will remain an island of decency, of justice, of community, and of peace.”

Frey, who has called on ICE to “get the f— out” of Minneapolis, said on Wednesday “the situation we are seeing in our city is not sustainable.”

Both Frey and Walz have repeatedly called for people to be peaceful in their protests. 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday told ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott during a gaggle with reporters that there are “no plans to pull out of Minnesota.”

ABC’s Scott pressed Noem if she would describe the situation on the ground in Minnesota as an “insurrection” and if she believed Trump should invoke the Insurrection Act.

“I describe it as violent and a violation of the law in many places. I discussed with the president this morning several things that we are dealing with under the department and different operations. We did discuss the Insurrection Act. He certainly has the constitutional authority to utilize that,” Noem said.

Noem added that the president will use “all the information” before making the decision. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at her press briefing Thursday that the Insurrection Act is a “tool at the president’s disposal.” When asked what it would take for Trump to use it, Leavitt said that was a question only the president can answer.

Trump previously threatened to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act last summer when protests were unfolding in Los Angeles over the administration’s immigration crackdown and deployment of the National Guard.

The law, which authorizes the use of the military on U.S. soil for certain purposes, hasn’t been enacted for decades. It was last implemented was in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush during the Los Angeles riots at the request of the governor. It hasn’t been used without coordination with a governor since the 1960s.

Overall, the Insurrection Act has been used in response to 30 crises over its history, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, including by Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy to desegregate schools after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.

The Insurrection Act states, in part: “Whenever there is an insurrection in any State against its government, the President may, upon the request of its legislature or of its governor if the legislature cannot be convened, call into Federal service such of the militia of the other States, in the number requested by that State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to suppress the insurrection.”

Democrats decry Trump’s threat, Johnson signals support

Several Democrats on Thursday decried Trump’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act.

Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, told reporters Trump “wants to use the military as his palace guard.”  

“This is a moment for the country. The president is acting in a lawless way. He’s got an ICE agency acting as his private police,” Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, told reporters. “They are going after American citizens. If we are not going to stand up for our freedoms now, if we’re not going to stand up for federalism now, then when?”

Across the aisle, House Speaker Mike Johnson signaled his support for the president’s potential use of the Insurrection Act.

“I can tell you Minnesota is out of control,” Johnson said. “You have local and state leaders who seem to be encouraging violence and all of this madness. The president is frustrated about it and so are we.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told ABC News, “I think he’s threatened that at other places, other states, too. So, I mean, we’ll see what happens there. Hopefully, the local officials — and working with not only the federal law enforcement, ICE and other agencies, but also the local law enforcement officials — will be able to settle things down.”

ABC News’ Emily Chang, Lauren Peller and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.