Trump threatened to invoking an 1807 Insurrection Act to mobilize the military around the country and “quickly solve the problem.”
“I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them. I am also taking swift and decisive action to protect our great capitol, Washington, DC. What happened in this city last night was a total disgrace,” , “Those who threaten innocent life and property will be arrested, detained and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I want the organizers of this terror to be on notice that you will face severe criminal penalties and lengthy sentences in jail.”
The Insurrection Act is brief. It allows the president, at the REQUEST of a state government, to federalize the National Guard and to use the remainder of the Armed Forces to suppress an insurrection against that state’s government. It further allows for the president to do the same in a state without the explicit consent of a state’s government if it becomes impracticable to enforce federal laws through ordinary proceedings or if states are unable to safeguard its inhabitants’ civil rights.
The general purpose of the Insurrection Act is to limit presidential power, relying on state and local governments for initial response in the event of insurrection. The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of the United States Army and Air Force (which has also been extended by executive direction to the Navy) for routine law enforcement. Actions taken under the Insurrection Act, as an “Act of Congress”, are exempt from the Posse Comitatus Act.
Read the Act. Or arrest the governors first, then move the troops in. Then again, the coup can go either ways.