A network of MAGA election activists, some with a direct line to the Oval Office, is urging President Donald Trump to take drastic steps, including martial law, if they decide next month’s midterms were “rigged,” according to a new report.
Many of the proposals surfaced on a Sept. 30 video call streamed on Rumble, where speakers warned of widespread security breaches they expect in November, reported Axios.
Peter Ticktin, Trump’s childhood friend and the attorney for convicted former Colorado election clerk Tina Peters, told participants “there would have to be martial law in the event... [of] another rigged election.”
Ticktin later told Axios that authorities would “probably need to be commandeering of ballots and election equipment.”
Peters, who has met with Trump at least twice since June, was also on the call.
Gregory Stenstrom, who testified about alleged voting irregularities in Pennsylvania after the 2020 election, said he’d rather see the election paused outright. As a fallback, he floated having Trump invoke the National Emergencies Act to force states to change how they run elections.
The call’s host, Steve Stern, has been steering viewers to sign up through the Republican Party as poll workers and observers.
Experts said the wish list runs headlong into the law. Derek Tisler of the Brennan Center for Justice noted that Congress sets the date of federal elections, and states choose their own voting systems.
“Emergency powers are not just a blank check for the president to go do whatever they want,” Tisler said.
He added that martial law would not allow Trump seize election materials or override federal and state election laws.
Still, election denial has found a home inside the administration. Heather Honey, who disputed the 2020 results in Pennsylvania and Arizona, is now the Department of Homeland Security’s deputy assistant secretary for election integrity. White House adviser Peter Navarro still touts his own report alleging mass fraud in 2020.
David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation & Research waved off the last-minute alarm.
“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,” he said.
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said Trump “believes every legal vote must count” and that Americans “must have complete confidence in the integrity of our elections.”