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In a wide-ranging Sunday night interview, former President Donald Trump made several bold statements on domestic policy that have drawn significant attention.
### Trump Boasts About the Insurrection Act
Trump bragged to correspondent Norah O’Donnell that, thanks to the Insurrection Act of 1792, he has the authority to invade any city whenever he wants. “Well, if you had to send in the Army, or if you had to send in the Marines, I’d do that in a heartbeat,” he said. “You know you have a thing called the Insurrection Act. You know that, right? Do you know that I could use that immediately, and no judge can even challenge you on that. But I haven’t chosen to do it because I haven’t felt we need it.”
This is not the first time Trump has threatened to use the Insurrection Act, which allows the president to override federal laws prohibiting the military from acting as law enforcement in order to “suppress rebellion.” The law, which has not been used in over three decades, is widely considered by legal experts to have a frightening potential for abuse.
When pressed by O’Donnell whether he would send the military into American cities, Trump confirmed: “Well, if I wanted to, I could, if I want to use the Insurrection Act. The Insurrection Act has been used routinely by presidents, and if I needed it, that would mean I could bring in the Army, the Marines, I could bring in whoever I want, but I haven’t chosen to use it. I hope you give me credit for that.”
### Defending Violent Immigration Raids
O’Donnell questioned Trump about Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) violent tactics during recent raids, which have included using tear gas in residential neighborhoods, throwing people to the ground, and breaking car windows.
“Have some of the raids gone too far?” she asked.
Trump responded bluntly, “No, I think they haven’t gone far enough. We’ve been held back by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in [the federal courts] by Biden and by Obama.”
When O’Donnell pressed if he was okay with those tactics, he replied, “Yeah, because you have to get the people out.”
### Government Shutdown: Trump Blames Democrats
As the federal government shutdown entered its fifth week—on pace to become the second-longest in U.S. history after the December 2018 to January 2019 shutdown—O’Donnell asked Trump what he is doing to end the shutdown.
His answer was to blame the Democrats: “The Republicans are voting almost unanimously to end it, and the Democrats keep voting against ending it,” he said. “They’ve lost their way. They become crazed lunatics.”
Senate Democrats have pledged to vote to reopen the government if legislation includes an extension of Obamacare subsidies. Without those, the health policy think tank KFF estimates average monthly premiums for people purchasing insurance through the ACA marketplace would more than double.
Trump condemned Obamacare as “terrible,” adding, “We can make it much less expensive for people and give them much better health care.” However, he once again failed to outline any concrete alternative, recalling only his earlier “concepts of a plan.”
He also warned that the shutdown will persist until Democrats in Congress bend to his will—or until Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) agrees to eliminate the filibuster, which Thune has so far rejected.
### Political Prosecutions: Trump Claims He’s “Mild-Mannered”
In just nine months, Trump has pursued prosecutions of his political enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
O’Donnell asked if this pattern amounted to political retribution.
Trump played the victim, saying, “You know who got indicted? The man you’re looking at. I got indicted and I was innocent, and here I am, because I was able to beat all of the nonsense that was thrown at me.”
(Despite this claim, he was found guilty in New York last year on 34 felony counts in the Stormy Daniels hush-money case.)
Although he had posted on Truth Social in September urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to speed up these prosecutions shortly before they occurred, Trump insisted he did not instruct the Department of Justice to pursue them: “No, you don’t have to instruct them, because they were so dirty, they were so crooked, they were so corrupt.”
He praised Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, calling himself “very mild-mannered” despite multiple indictments. “You’re looking at a man who was indicted many times, and I had to beat the rap, otherwise I couldn’t have run for president,” he said.
### Trump vs. Zohran Mamdani: A “Better-Looking” Communist?
Trump also weighed in on the New York City mayoral race, where 34-year-old self-described Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani is the frontrunner.
Trump labeled Mamdani a “Communist” and dismissed comparisons between himself and Mamdani, which O’Donnell described as “charismatic, breaking the old rules.”
“I think I’m a much better-looking person than him,” Trump declared.
He reiterated his threat to withhold federal funding from New York if Mamdani wins over former Governor Andrew Cuomo: “It’s going to be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York, because if you have a Communist running New York, all you’re doing is wasting the money you’re sending there.”
He added that he is “not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other,” but if forced to choose “between a bad Democrat and a Communist,” he said, “I’m going to pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you.”
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https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/11/trump-brags-he-could-invade-your-city-whenever-he-wants/