President Donald Trump said on Monday that he’s considering using the Insurrection Act of 1807 to deploy the military against those protesting the brutal murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25. Trump said in the Rose Garden, “If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve problem for them.”

Though it would be a scary move on Trump’s part, it’s also perhaps a desperate one, suggesting that he knows he has lost control of the American people. Trump has long been a fanboy of dictators, and his rallies have always dabbled in the aesthetics of fascism, but in these (let’s hope) final months of his presidency, using the military against protesters — especially without the consent of state and local governments — would be a newly authoritarian step for him.

The Insurrection Act was passed more than two centuries ago, and in theory, it would allow the president to get around the provisions of the later Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which bars the government from using the military as a police force. Thomas Jefferson drafted it because former vice president Aaron Burr was allegedly plotting to overthrow the US government. Burr was arrested in Alabama before the act passed, rendering it irrelevant for its conceived purpose. Since then, it’s been used infrequently.