Trump allies discuss martial law if midterms deemed ‘rigged’

MAGA activists are reportedly pushing for President Donald Trump to employ radical solutions, including martial law if they believe the midterm elections are “ rigged.”

The primary motive behind this is proposals that go far beyond Trump’s legal authority and there is no evidence that the elections will be rigged.

However, prominent MAGA election activist Tine Peters met with Trump this month. On September 30, a video call for MAGA election activists streamed on Rumble where speakers sounded the alarm of widespread election security breaches they believe occur in November and urgently demanded solutions.

Gregory Stenstrom who testified about election anomalies in Pennsylvania in 2020 said he wanted the election suspended over security concerns. He also proposed Trump invoke the National Emergencies Act to force states to change how they run elections.

Emergency powers are not just a blank check for the president to go do whatever they want but the president still has to act within the Constitution and within statutes set by Congress, according to Derek Tisler, counsel for the Brennan Center’s elections and government program. States select their voting system and analyze how votes are counted in line with federal law.

Moreover, emergency powers do not allow Trump to override state elections limitations whereas martial law would give Trump control to seize control of election materials or overrule federal and state election laws.

Executive director of the Centre for Election Innovative Research, David Becker said: “This election did not sneak up on the administration. They've been in office for 21 months. We're 20 days away from this election, and they haven't done any of this stuff.”