Martial law has been declared on a small number of occasions in the US, including during the Civil Rights Movement (Picture: Getty/Shutterstock)
Donald Trump could be setting the stage for something Americans once believed unimaginable – martial law on their own soil.
As ‘Hands Off!’ protests erupted across all 50 states over the weekend, the US president did not urge for calm or unity. Instead, he defended his policy to deport immigrants, or as the White House called them, ‘illegal aliens’.
Jason Pack, host of the Disorder Podcast, told Metro about America’s path to martial law under Trump and how it may be ‘the only way for him to stay in power’.
What would be Trump’s ‘excuse’ for martial law?
Claims about Trump’s plan to declare martial law on April 20 – a date also known for being Adolf Hitler’s birthday – first began circulating on TikTok over the weekend.
Like many theories that gain traction on social media, this one hinges on circumstantial timing as the date falls on when the department of defence and the department of homeland security are to submit a report assessing the situation at the US-Mexico border.
They are expected to recommend whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 for purposes of border enforcement.
Jason explained this would be the administration’s first step in the path to eventually declaring martial law, but said the ‘Hands Off!’ protests are likely to be used as the excuse to do it.
A person holds a placard during an anti-Trump demonstration in Manhattan (Picture: Reuters)
He said: ‘Trump does not need further Congressional approval for that. If he can prove that protests are a threat to any Federal employees entering Federal buildings, or are a threat to the functioning of Federal institutions, he can then invoke the Insurrection Act and establish martial law.
‘According to a widely circulating theory, the Trump Admin is waiting for the protests to get out of hand, for example for the entrance to the Treasury Building to be blocked.
‘That is the opportunity to use the Insurrection Act. And similarly to calling a National Emergency this will allow various civil liberties to be taken away from people.’
How could martial law benefit Trump?
Jason said there is a ‘desire to get to a position to have martial law’ as this will allow a certain kind of deflection from the ‘tanking’ economy.
Since Trump entered the White House for a second term, the market has declined at a speed and scale unseen since the start of the pandemic.
Trump greets members of the National Guard on the US-Mexico border (Picture: AP)
Further mass mobilisation, like the ‘Hands Off!’ protests, are expected in the coming months in response, and Jason warned ‘we have to assume that it is going to get worse’.
‘Trump will be very happy to be able to revoke freedoms and due process in a way that he could not do in the first term due to his inability to put down the Black Lives Matter protests,’ he said.
‘This is part of the reason why he likes disorder. Because disorder allows people to be afraid and to be willing to tear up the norms of a healthy rule of law based democracy.
‘The more disorder we have, either economically or culturally, the more his supporters are made afraid via Fox News and then they are willing to accept on his side the destruction of those norms.
‘Trump would love to use this disorder to get rid of the checks and balances that underpin our democracy.’
Protestors are tear gassed as police disperse them near the White House on June 1, 2020 as demonstrations against George Floyd’s death continued (Picture: PA)
Has martial law ever been ordered in the US before?
Martial law allows the military to take over normal the civilian functions – including law enforcement, courts and governance.
It is typically used only in war, rebellion, or a total collapse of civil authority.
In the US, it has been used in a limited number of occasions, like after big disasters, such as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, or during the Civil Rights Movement.
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