Stories
Republican Allies Urge Trump to Invoke Martial Law Amid Midterm Defeat Fears
- •Fearing defeat in upcoming midterm elections, prominent allies of Donald Trump have urged him to invoke martial law and deploy the military to polling stations.
- •Magal figures and Trump lawyers like Peter Ticktin have publicly called for seizing control of the voting process and ballot counting if Democrats win.
- •Trump has refused to rule out declaring an emergency or invoking the Insurrection Act, raising concerns among election experts and lawmakers.
- •Experts warn that the administration might attempt to commandeer ballots and election equipment under the guise of investigating foreign interference.
- •Democrats, election experts, and bipartisan officials are preparing legal safeguards and monitoring strategies to protect the integrity of the vote-counting process.
Key Questions Answered
Allies of President Donald Trump have urged him to deploy the military to polling stations and invoke martial law to seize control of the voting process and ballot counting in the event that Republicans lose the midterm elections. Prominent figures in the MAGA movement have advocated for these unprecedented steps, which election experts note are explicitly barred by the US Constitution.
When asked by Time magazine about the possibility of using the Insurrection Act to deploy the military to polling stations, Donald Trump stated, 'I could use it. A lot of people think I should use it sometimes.' Furthermore, he explicitly stated that he does not rule anything out or in when questioned about whether he might declare an emergency concerning the midterm elections.
Election officials and experts fear that the Trump administration might use unsubstantiated claims of foreign interference as a pretext to seize voting equipment, ballots, or election records after voting concludes. Former Deputy Homeland Security Adviser Caitlin Durkovich warned that the administration may attempt these seizures whether or not they are legally justified.
