Why Trump might invoke the Insurrection Act before, during, or after the midterms

Midterm election polls suggest Republicans could lose control of the House and Senate. Meanwhile, President Trump, administration officials, and their media cheerleaders are identifying threats and offering scenarios that could justify a show of force or a national emergency declaration, potentially prompting the president to invoke the powerful Insurrection Act.

No president has ever invoked the Insurrection Act in connection with an election, but Trump could be the first. He already seriously considered invoking it twice, first in June 2020 during the George Floyd protests and again in January amid the ICE deportation confrontations and deadly shootings in Minneapolis.

The Insurrection Act authorizes the domestic deployment of the U.S. military or the federalization of the National Guard to suppress violent, out-of-control situations, such as rebellions, riots, protests, or insurrections. President George H. W. Bush last invoked it in 1992.

During his second term, Trump sought to normalize military deployments in six U.S. cities and threatened to do so in five more, citing the need to protect ICE agents during deportation arrests, secure federal property, and reduce crime, until courts repeatedly intervened.    

From Trump’s perspective, mounting Republican fears of midterm losses might present a historic opportunity to use force, or even federalize the elections. The president knows that if Democrats control Congress, they will launch probing investigations that could cripple his final two years and threaten his legacy. With so much at stake, might Trump trigger an event like the 2021 Capitol riot?

The overarching reality is that our president does not lose elections. Losing signals weakness, which is not in Trump’s DNA, and........

© The Hill