Trump’s MAGA allies are pressing him to consider martial law, among other extraordinary measures, if they decide the November midterm elections are “rigged.”
Tina Peters, a prominent MAGA election activist, met with Trump in October. She was convicted in 2024 of crimes tied to a breach of election equipment, then freed this year after Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, commuted her sentence. Peters and her attorney, Peter Ticktin, also visited Trump at the White House in late June.
Ticktin, who is Trump’s childhood friend, was among the speakers on a Sept. 30 video call for MAGA election activists streamed on Rumble. They warned of widespread election security breaches they believe will hit in November, and they urgently pushed for remedies.
“There would have to be martial law in the event... [of] another rigged election,” Ticktin said on the call.
He later doubled down in an Axios interview.
“They’ll probably need to be commandeering of ballots and election equipment to make sure that we can get to the bottom of it before anything further occurs,” he said.
He told the Daily Beast: “Ordinarily, the White House does not respond to hypotheticals which are suggested. The urging that I do is only in the event of a nightmare scenario where foreign interests take over our election equipment and thereby the outcome.”
Another speaker, Gregory Stenstrom, who testified about alleged voting irregularities in Pennsylvania in 2020, said he most wanted the election paused over security concerns. Failing that, he proposed Trump invoke the National Emergencies Act to force states to change how they run elections.
Peters was on the call too. She has been promoting her own plan online since August, which calls for switching to hand-marked paper ballots and manually recounting all votes where feasible.
“Her plan is secure the paper ballots and recount by hand,” Ticktin said. In an interview with Colorado Public Radio, he said this would “eliminate whatever effect the machines have.”
The streamed call is a regular feature in this activist community, drawing voices from across the country. The host, Steve Stern, directs his viewers to sign up through the Republican Party to become poll workers and observers for November.
The skepticism reaches well into the administration. Heather Honey, best known for denying the results of the 2020 election in Pennsylvania and Arizona, is now the Homeland Security Department’s deputy assistant secretary for election integrity and a senior adviser to the ICE director.
White House adviser Peter Navarro continues to promote his own report of mass election fraud and irregularities around the 2020 election.
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told Axios in a statement: “Americans deserve elections that are safe, secure, and transparent to ensure full confidence in the results. President Trump believes every legal vote must count, every election must be protected, and Americans must have complete confidence in the integrity of our elections.”
Trump has threatened sweeping federal force before. In January, just hours after ICE agents shot a man during an enforcement operation in Minnesota, he went to Truth Social.
“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump declared.
The man, Alex Pretti, was shot in Minneapolis by a federal agent, sparking protests in which ICE agents pepper-sprayed demonstrators. The city was still on edge a week after the killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, who was shot dead by agent Jonathan Ross.
All parties mentioned were contacted for comment.
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said: “This is more trash reporting from the Daily Beast. The real story is all the President has done to secure our elections and arrest individuals who illegally voted in our elections.”
