Trump threatens to enact Insurrection Act in Minnesota
Left, Right & Center
KCRW
3.9 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Trump is threatening to enact the Insurrection Act and deploy National Guard troops in Minneapolis. The threat comes on the heels of continued protests over the January 7th killing of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent. The Trump administration claims Good was a “domestic terrorist,” while protestors call for accountability over the shooting. Our panel discusses the motivation for protestors and whether the accountability they’re looking for is possible.
The president’s desire to show force isn’t limited to the nation’s borders. Vice President JD Vance met with Danish officials to discuss control of Greenland this week. After the meeting, President Trump insisted that all options remain on the table for the US to take control of the arctic nation - including military action. He is also considering US involvement in Iran to support civilians who are calling for the removal of the country’s government. Both moves threaten to upend the existing world order. Is that what Trump wants?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to another left, right and center, everybody. |
| 0:04.0 | I'm David Green. |
| 0:05.1 | Before Renee Nicole Good was killed by an ICE agent, |
| 0:09.9 | she and her wife had joined others in protesting the agency's deployment in their community. |
| 0:14.8 | In the days following Goods killing, her participation in that protest was painted as unlawful by the Trump administration. |
| 0:22.5 | What that headline leaves out is that that woman was there to interfere with a legitimate |
| 0:27.1 | law enforcement operation in the United States of America. |
| 0:30.5 | What she did was a crime. |
| 0:32.5 | It's illegal to interfere and impede the law enforcement officers. |
| 0:36.0 | That was Vice President J.D. Vance, followed by the voice of |
| 0:39.1 | the president's borders are Tom Homan after Renee Nicole Good's death. All right, so that took place. |
| 0:44.6 | Then this past Wednesday, also in Minneapolis, the Department of Homeland Security says that an |
| 0:50.3 | ice agent shot an injured of Venezuelan man who they were pursuing. |
| 0:54.9 | They say he and two other people attacked the ice agent, both the agent and the man they were chasing, were injured. |
| 1:01.5 | The city has been tense with protesters amassing in certain locations in Minneapolis, including a hotel where they thought ice agents were housed. |
| 1:12.5 | The mayor is saying that the situation in his city is unsustainable. President Trump, meanwhile, says that he's considering |
| 1:18.1 | invoking the 200-year-old Insurrection Act, which would allow him to deploy active duty military |
| 1:23.3 | in an American city. So are these protests taking place lawbreaking? Are they acts of resistance |
| 1:30.5 | to hold people in power accountable? Could they be both? And what can or should Americans do |
| 1:36.4 | when they are in disagreement with the policies of a presidential administration? I want to get |
| 1:40.9 | into all of these questions with Moe Lathie on the left. |
| 1:44.7 | He's executive director at Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service |
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