Did U.S. President Donald Trump publicly declare that he would implement martial law in the United States on April 20, 2025? No, that's not true: As of April 9, Trump had not publicly given any such order, or made any such declaration. Rumors that Trump would announce or implement martial law on April 20 stemmed from an executive order relating to the possible invocation of the Insurrection Act of 1807 to address what Trump described as a national emergency at the southern border.
The claim appeared in an April 9, 2025, video on TikTok (archived here), in the form of an embedded text banner which read:
TRUMP DECLARES MARTIAL LAW APRIL 20TH
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot)
In reality, as of April 9, 2025, Trump had not declared martial law would begin on April 20. The White House website contained no relevant results for the phrase "martial law", and Trump had made no such announcement on his Truth Social, X, Facebook or Instagram accounts.
Rumors of impending martial law, and the date of April 20 specifically, spread widely in April 2025, on various social media platforms, but especially TikTok.
Those rumors stemmed from an executive order signed by Trump on the day of his inauguration, January 20, 2025. In that order, Trump declared a national emergency on the southern border, claiming that:
Our southern border is overrun by cartels, criminal gangs, known terrorists, human traffickers, smugglers, unvetted military-age males from foreign adversaries, and illicit narcotics that harm Americans...
Among several other measures, Trump ordered two cabinet secretaries to report back to him on conditions at the border, and to advise him on whether he should invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act, within 90 days:
Within 90 days of the date of this proclamation, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit a joint report to the President about the conditions at the southern border of the United States and any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.
Depending on whether you include the end date, 90 days from January 20 is April 19 or April 20, hence the inclusion of the latter date in the widespread rumors.
In brief, the Insurrection Act authorizes the president to use federal troops to assist civilian (that is, non-military) law enforcement agencies to suppress an insurrection. Depending on circumstances, this can be done with or without the consent or request of state governors.
Presidents have invoked and used it on many occasions throughout American history, including several times during the 19th century, and during federal-state clashes over the implementation of civil rights legislation in the 1950s and 1960s.
In 2020, then presidential candidate Trump vowed to invoke the act in order to put an end to the protests and unrest which followed the killing of George Floyd, and since then has also mooted using federal troops to quell crime, especially in major cities.
So invoking the Insurrection Act is something Trump has repeatedly and consistently said he would consider doing, for a variety of reasons, and the January 20 executive order set out a possible timeline for his doing just that, giving rise to widespread speculation and discussion that April 20 might be the date on which such an invocation is announced and/or carried out.
However, invoking the Insurrection Act, which involves the deployment of federal troops to assist civilian law enforcement in specific states and locations, is not the same as declaring martial law, which would involve a sweeping, nationwide replacement of civilian law enforcement authority by the U.S. military.
