Some states authorized the national guard to assist law enforcement, but others, like New York, did not. In addition to thousands marching and gathering peacefully across the country, there were also incidents of destruction and violence, with looters destroying storefronts, vandals setting fire to police cars and other buildings, and some attacking police officers and leading a police precinct in Minneapolis to be abandoned. Though he dialed that rhetoric back the following day, concerns from the president's critics have only grown with the waves of protests and unrest that have followed the release of harrowing video showing George Floyd dying with a Minneapolis police officer's knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes. During an April 14 White House briefing, on one of the darkest days of the coronavirus outbreak, Trump made his views on the subject clear by discussing his desire to overrule governors on reopening their states. Trump's flexing has grown more frequent since early spring, when the nation was beset by a pandemic and then by mass demonstrations around the country. In 2017, Trump threatened to 'send in the feds' to Chicago to quell violence there, and raised objections from critics that his deployment of troops to the Southern border to help with immigration control violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits the law enforcement capacity of active duty military troops. Trump and his administration have long floated an expansive approach to executive power, with the president arguing in a June 2019 interview with ABC News that Article II of the Constitution 'allows me to do whatever I want,' and arguing this year that he has 'absolute immunity' from subpoenas. He said he and others have not appreciated seeing Trump musing publicly about extending the limits of his authority. King is one of several senators, most of them Democrats, who have written to the Trump administration in recent weeks seeking clarity on the president's intentions. But taken to the extreme, the power could lead to the suppression of basic liberties, experts said. The most striking example, during desegregation in the Deep South, was brief and limited. Presidents have imposed martial law - giving military commanders the authority to make rules or take actions deemed necessary to restore order - only rarely and in targeted ways over the course of the nation's history. 'What is he capable of? I think the answer is, pretty much anything.' Angus King, a Maine independent, told ABC News on Friday.

'This president has indicated no respect for limitations on his authority,' U.S. He could seek to further expand the boundaries of his power, they told ABC News, with several adding ominously that there are two words they fear most: martial law. And lawmakers have sought reassurances that any future spike in violence or disease won't bring a military crackdown.Įven though Trump has been prone to using fiery language for spectacle, and appears to have retreated from flexing about using more force, his critics maintain there are fresh reasons to worry. In response to the president's threats to deploy military assets in a domestic setting, former military brass and departed Trump aides leveled a succession of pointed warnings. The bleak new look for the seat of American democracy last week came matched with rhetoric from President Donald Trump, who began publicly flirting with the idea of using active duty military to 'dominate' and reclaim the streets from what he described as chaotic crowds in places not willing or able to contain the unrest. Heavily armed officers met protesters with flash-bang grenades and chemical agents. Thousands of soldiers and law enforcement officers descended on the nation's capital.

Donald trump mocks george floyd