President Donald Trump's White House and Cabinet advisers have spent months trying to pull his attention away from election conspiracy theories as some of his most devoted outside allies are urging him to take control of this fall's midterms – even through martial law.
The Atlantic reported Wednesday that advisers have worked to steer Trump away from baseless fraud claims pushed by figures such as attorney Peter Ticktin, conservative host Wayne Allyn Root and former Colorado clerk Tina Peters, while at the same time they've authorized efforts to find evidence that would make those claims appear more credible.
Administration officials gathered once-classified documents on foreign election interference, authorized the seizure of Georgia election records and reviewed voting equipment used in Puerto Rico – but none of that work turned up the large-scale fraud Trump has alleged.
Ticktin, who went to military school with Trump as a teenager, told The Atlantic that one scenario this fall ends with Trump declaring martial law on or around Nov. 3. "Either martial law, or step aside," Ticktin said.
Asked about the prospect of riots if Trump tried to overturn the results, Ticktin said he wasn't worried. "Believe me, our armed forces are a lot bigger than they are," he said.
Root, a LindellTV host and Gateway Pundit columnist, has pushed Trump to declare a "national-security emergency" to impose voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements, and the right-wing pundit told The Atlantic he sends his columns directly to Trump by email and text, and Trump regularly reposts them on Truth Social.
"I hope he takes orders from Wayne Allyn Root," Root said.
Trump apparently hasn't ruled it out. While interviewing the president last month on his radio program, Root floated the idea of declaring a national emergency to seize control of the election, and Trump sounded intrigued by the idea. "Let me just say that stranger things have happened, okay?" Trump said. "I'll leave it at that."
Experts say such a declaration wouldn't give Trump the power he'd need because emergency powers are limited to specific authorities granted by Congress, and none of them covers elections.
"There seems to be a wild misperception on the part of some Trump allies that an emergency declaration allows the president to do anything he wants," said Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Center for Justice. "It is not a blank check."
Even so, The Atlantic reported that individuals in Trump's inner circle admit a move to seize control of the elections remains possible, and Republican leaders largely oppose the idea, at least for now, partly because it's seen as bad politics.
Polling commissioned by Republicans found that Trump's SAVE America Act would likely fire up Democrats and suppress GOP turnout in red states that depend on mail voting.
A White House official said Ticktin, Root and Peters play no role in election policy, and White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said the "real story" is that "evidence of voter fraud and non-citizens voting in our elections continues to pile up."