NYT Discovers Trump Threatens Deploying Troops, Ignores When Biden Does
The New York Times, in October 2025, highlighted former President Trump's consideration of utilizing the Insurrection Act to deploy the National Guard to Chicago and Portland, noting it would 'grant him emergency powers to deploy troops and bypass court rulings.' This framing suggests a unique and dangerous overreach. However, the Insurrection Act, last invoked by George W. Bush in 1992, has been
used nearly 200 times since its inception in 1792. Biden himself deployed federal agents for similar scenarios for the same 'national security' reasons cited previously by others. (NYT, October 2025) One might wonder if the NYT's digital archives have a filter for inconvenient historical parallels. The Insurrection Act's potential for abuse isn't new; it's a feature, not a bug, of executive
overreach. The critique isn't about the act itself, but about whose hands are deemed 'safe' to hold such power. Apparently, some presidents' emergency powers are more newsworthy—and more terrifying—than others.