Trump’s advisers have been working for months to move his focus away from baseless theories of election fraud. A group of outsiders is making that difficult.
Of all the outside advisers urging President Trump to seize control of federal elections this fall, the attorney Peter Ticktin can claim the deepest ties; the two men went to military school together as teenagers. In 2022, Ticktin helped Trump sue Hillary Clinton. This year, he pushed Trump to secure a pardon for Tina Peters, a former Colorado clerk convicted of charges related to tampering with election equipment.
Which is why it might be worth listening when Ticktin says that Trump could do something soon to take over elections. “He’s the only one that I know for sure has the understanding of the severity of it,” Ticktin told us this month before taking the stage at an election-skeptic conference in Las Vegas. The way Ticktin sees it, there are three possible outcomes this fall. The first—a smooth election—won’t happen in his view because, he claims without evidence, Democrats already cheated in the primaries. The second is that Trump takes action before the election to prevent cheating. The last option is that Trump tries to declare martial law on or around November 3. “Either martial law, or step aside,” he told us about Trump’s choices in the last scenario. When we asked about the prospect of riots if Trump tries to overturn the election results, Ticktin said he was not concerned. “Believe me, our armed forces are a lot bigger than they are,” he said.
Trump has already tried to claim greater federal control over elections, which under the Constitution are administered primarily at the state and local level. In February, he said Republicans should nationalize voting in at least 15 places. In August, when the television and radio host Wayne Allyn Root pushed Trump to declare a “national-security emergency” to require proof of citizenship, voter ID, and other measures, Trump played coy: “Let me just say that stranger things have happened, okay? I’ll leave it at that.” Later that month, Trump posted a Root column on the topic, with a headline that described the plan as “foolproof.” Peters announced after meeting with Trump in June that the president “basically said to his lead counsel to do what I was asking.” In a prime-time address at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Trump again repeated the false claim that he had won the 2020 election, and sarcastically encouraged his supporters to “cheat like hell” in the upcoming elections.
So, what do we do if he does declare martial law before the election?
Not trolling. What should people do? Im looking for any real answer beyond a vague 2nd amendment statement. Just "get your guns" is not an answer. We will be outgunned and murdered if we just grab guns and go to polling places.
Real answer anyone?
The first thing to remember is that we have never suspended, postponed, or cancelled an election, not even during the Civil War. That is a bright red line that has never been crossed, and should never be crossed.
The elections are run by the states. He can try and suspend them at the Federal level, but most states won't cooperate, including most red states. Especially if he tries to stop them at the last second, when they are already in progress. He doesn't have the authority to end elections, they'll just have them anyway.
MAGAs have ambitions, too, and they see Trump's days ending, and they want their chance. Everybody is just about fed up with protecting Trump's treasonous ass. Now the MAGAs are supposed to shelve their own ambitions to support an increasingly demented, dying, and irrelevant old pedophile?
And elections are about more than Federal offices. There are a lot of state and local elections that have to happen, too. Cancelling elections doesn't just prevent Congress from flipping, it gums up the governmental systems from top to bottom.
All that said, this is an indication that MAGA is on the verge of panic, and that makes them very dangerous. They have until 2028 to gain full control of the population, or the top people are going to prison, or worse. They are more aware of this than most citizens, who still believe that those at the top will face no punishment. They will, and they KNOW it. As one German general said, after hearing that the Soviet Army had defeated the invading Nazi army, and was now marching toward Berlin: "If they treat us half as bad as we treated them, we're in big trouble." That's what MAGA is thinking.
So they HAVE to stay in power, they simply have to. Anything less, means severe punishment, so they will have to get vicious to keep it, because they have no choice.
Get prepared, Citizen, the next two years are going to be like no other time in American history.
What we should have been doing since 2016. Building a shadow state, the same way the Republicans have. A coalition of the willing prepared to organize, do logistics, move people and resources outside official channels. Organize community relief efforts and distribute information that subverts the Trumpists narrative. Make no mistake there may be a time where violence becomes unavoidable, but even then, an army marches on its stomach. The most powerful weapon ever built isn't a nuclear bomb, its logistics, and it always has been.
To be honest? Unless the military steps in, you are cooked and even if they do, a despot could fill the power vacuum. I would recommend everyone reading this to gather their friends and family and prepare for the worst. This channel is a good place to get started.
I posted this channel in the liberal gun community and it got down voted.
You may be right.
But.
Thats no reason to just let them win. How many feds can they send to the polls in the US? How many people will be voting at each location? Imagine if half the voters, or more, were armed. Dont tell me "ThAt'S iLlEgAl", because its also illegal to send ice/feds/solders to the polls.
Imagine you are standing on the third story of a burning building. If you jump, you will probably live, but you're going to get hurt. A broken leg or arm. The alternative is burning to death in a fire.
We are on the third story of a burning building now. We see what we have to do. Its not ideal. Its not painless. Its not perfect. We're going to get hurt.
But the alternative is much worse.
I have answered this question many times and each variation of it gets removed for inciting violence. So, I will leave it to your imagination. Imagine what General Sherman would advise us to do. Imagine what John Brown would advise us to do.
Doing the right thing is often messy and difficult. Please understand that as polite as they are to your face, your conservative neighbors do not value your life the way you value theirs. This is because conservatives do not experience empathy. They call empathy "woke". They truly hate empathy and empathetic people. Your empathy makes them see you as their enemy. They are not kidding about that. They really do hate "woke" people. Listen to them when they tell you who they hate.
Violence comes much more easily to a conservative than to a normal person. When conservatives see you as their enemy, they will act appropriately. If you don't act first, you are likely to become their victim. Understand that no other country is coming to save us. Resist with force or flee. There is no third option.
There isn't a great answer. The states should file an immediate lawsuit seeking an injunction against the declaration. Depending on the timing, that may well be too little too late. However, if the election is impaired in any way, there should be a nationwide general strike. Everything should be shut down, period. The brave can demonstrate in public, and risk being shot. Those who want to fight back can specifically target companies that support the administration in a variety of unique ways beyond simple boycotts. We will we need to view the U.S. as a country occupied by a hostile force, which is exactly what it would be. Not give up and capitulate, but quietly work to impede the hostile force and grind everything to a halt. Money is the lifeblood of these losers, and impairing their ability to make it is how to hurt them.
It depends on how many take to the streets. The cops and military are grossly outnumbered. I don't think they would open fire into crowds of hundreds of thousands of people either. A million people march on the whitehouse and I think that would do it. The thing is that half of us would fight to defend the coup. Well, half of the people who give a shit either way...
I need $5. And your vote. Just vote harder. And $5.
—The Democratic Establishment
Imagine taking the democrat's power away before they could try Trump, reelecting Trump as president and calling the democrats powerless.
This is why american democracy is fucked people like that have the power to vote or to choose not to vote.
I could see that. I could also see, like if god forbid martial law is declared, the dems chastising their base for not voting enough back in 2024, 2016, etc. and just antagonizing everyone even more. It’s just The Aristocrats in here.
It's easy to skirt responsibility by passing it off to the democrats.