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US President Donald Trump affirmed to end violent protests across the United States. He also threatened to deploy heavily armed US military troops to cities. Trump was speaking at the White House with the sound of police firing tear gas at protesters in Washington audible behind him. President spoke during an early evening Rose Garden statement with another protest over George Floyd‘s death last week while in police custody in Minneapolis. He said, “A number of state and local governments have failed to take necessary action to safeguard their residents”. Point to be noted that protests went violent because Floyd was a black man and the police officer was white.

Trump said during his speech, “I am mobilizing all available federal resources, civilian and military, to stop the rioting and looting, to end the destruction and arson, and to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans”. It is noteworthy that a congressional waiver typically must be approved prior to deploying active-duty troops onto US soil. A law professor at the US Naval Academy, Mark Nevitt said, “Can Trump use the Military to respond to Minneapolis? Yes, but this is subject to certain, critical legal restrictions under both the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act. This is the legal key that unlocks the door to use federal military forces – whether through federalizing the National Guard or calling in title 10 forces to quell civil unrest”.

President Trump said, “We are ending the riots and lawlessness that has spread across our country. We will End it now”. During his phone call with governors, he recommended they activate their National Guard troops if needed. Nevitt pointed out President George HW Bush issued an executive order in 1992 during racially charged violence. It authorized the US defense secretary to federalize the California National Guard and deploy the active-duty army and marine personnel from bases in California to the scenes of the riots. Trump alleged professional anarchists, violent mobs, and groups such as Antifa for the rioting and looting of businesses in Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, and other cities in the country.