# How Likely is It that Trump will Try to Proclaim Martial Law? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 17, 2020, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294 "2020-12-17T22:09:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2020, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/201 "2020-12-28T23:54:36Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Quote from a far right-wing blogger. Dunno that I’d call Greenwald “far right-wing” exactly, but that linked article sure has a lot of misleading omissions and misstatements, including this ridiculous bit: > [@](#): > > Trump was criticized, especially by Democrats, **for _failing_ to assert the draconian powers** he had, such as commandeering the means of industrial production under the Defense Production Act of 1950, invoked by Truman to force industry to produce materials needed for the Korean War. In March, _The Washington Post_ [reported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/19/defense-production-act-trump-coronavirus/) that “Governors, Democrats in Congress and some Senate Republicans have been urging Trump for at least a week to invoke the act, and his potential 2020 opponent, Joe Biden, came out in favor of it, too,” yet “Trump [gave] a variety of reasons for not doing so.” **Rejecting demands to exploit a public health pandemic to assert extraordinary powers is not exactly what one expects from a striving dictator**. The attempt to paint this as some kind of principled abstention from dictatorial power on Trump’s part is [simply silly:](https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/trump-biden-and-the-defense-production-act/) > [@](#): > > First enacted in 1950 in response to the Korean War and last [amended in 2018](https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1583170516466-d519026f6d0fcd35b0581d9418e67bef/Defense_Production_Act_2018.pdf), the Defense Production Act provides the president broad authority to “influence domestic industry in the interest of national defense,” as a [Congressional Research Service report](https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R43767.pdf) put it in 2020. […] > > As the [_New York Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/us/politics/coronavirus-defense-production-act.html) reported, the law has been used hundreds of thousands of times during the Trump administration, “especially by the military to give its contract priority ratings to jump ahead of a vendor’s other clients.” The _Times_ [noted](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/us/politics/trump-coronavirus.html) that in recent years, the administration has also used the powers contained in the act to restore power grids and to supply emergency food and water in areas devastated by hurricanes in 2017. […] > > On March 13, 57 House Democrats wrote [a letter](https://andylevin.house.gov/sites/andylevin.house.gov/files/031320%20House%20to%20POTUS%20on%20DPA%20COVID-19.pdf) urging the president to “use the powers afforded by the Defense Production Act of 1950 ([50 U.S.C. §§4501 et seq.](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=(title:50%20section:4501%20edition:prelim)%20OR%20(granuleid:USC-prelim-title50-section4501)&f=treesort&edition=prelim&num=0&jumpTo=true)) to begin the mass production of supplies needed to address the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.” […] > > Five days later, on March 18, Trump [invoked](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-prioritizing-allocating-health-medical-resources-respond-spread-covid-19/) the Defense Production Act “[just in case we need it](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-briefing-5/).” But Trump stopped short of implementing the act to force production of certain goods. […] > > In the following days, Trump said that he was reluctant to use the Defense Production Act to force corporations to make products, likening such a move to “[nationalizing our businesses](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-briefing-8/).” […] > > We should note that compelling a company to produce supplies is [not the same](https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/23/819926854/fact-check-trump-compares-defense-production-act-to-nationalization) as “nationalizing” the business. Under the act, private businesses would be paid for their production and would remain private companies, not government entities. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/202 "2020-12-29T00:04:06Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Who was it that said “When fascism comes to America it’ll be wrapped in the Flag and carrying the Cross”? Nobody, actually. Or, at least, nobody of note. The statement is usually attributed to Sinclair Lewis, but it appears nowhere in his writings. There are a few quotes similar to the famous one that can be sourced to around Lewis’s time period, but none that use the exact phrasing. The closest comes from a speech by another writer around 1935 ([cite](https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/06/22/american-fascism-it-has-happened-here/)). So the true author of that quote is probably “Anonymous (distilling previous material into pithy syntax).” ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/203 "2020-12-29T00:21:29Z")
_“The Ku Klux Klan comes wrapped in the American flag, as it were, advocating the American principles openly, with a Bible in its hand ,"_ Lonnie Jackson, mayor of Central City, Kentucky, 1923. [Quote Investigator](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/07/28/flag/#more-16541) ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/204 "2020-12-29T01:23:46Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Who was it that said “When fascism comes to America it’ll be wrapped in the Flag and carrying the Cross”? I’ve been saying for about four years now that we need to change that line to past tense. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/205 "2020-12-29T03:31:24Z")
Well, since we are already a fascist state, then why bother to fight it, or vote or donate? 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/206 "2020-12-29T03:49:02Z")
The resistance did not give up in France or Netherlands when they were occupied by fascists ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/207 "2020-12-29T14:08:11Z")
There is a difference between using the powers of the presidency to help the American people, and using them to help himself. He has no interest in the former, much in the latter. > [@DrDeth](#): > > Well, since we are already a fascist state, then why bother to fight it, or vote or donate? 🙄 No one said that. Fascism has certainly come here to America, and it is absolutely testing the waters and trying to gain hold. That does not mean that we are already a fascist state. It means we are in danger of becoming one, which is why one would bother to fight it, vote, and donate. Anyone who invokes, “It can never happen here.” is helping it to happen here. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/208 "2020-12-29T18:47:19Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > No one said that. Fascism has certainly come here to America, and it is absolutely testing the waters and trying to gain hold. Pretty much **Smapti** did. Fascism is dead. It will never come back. Now sure, some right wing idea will take over that may have some of the elements of fascism, but it’s dead as well as classical communism. They failed. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/209 "2020-12-29T18:56:34Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > They failed. I agree that Fascism has failed. This will not stop facists from trying it out again though. Supply-side bullshit economics has failed over and over again as well. This has not stopped Republicans from continuing to believe in it, and to enact huge tax cuts for the wealthy. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/210 "2020-12-29T20:05:17Z")
I think feudalism is coming back. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/211 "2020-12-29T21:57:05Z")
Wake me when platform shoes start to come back. I want a running (and screaming) head start. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/212 "2020-12-29T22:01:59Z")
So is the screaming from breaking your leg while running in platform shoes? ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/213 "2020-12-29T22:07:11Z")
I wouldn’t be buried in platform shoes. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/214 "2020-12-29T22:12:30Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > None. The thread can be closed. Of course that’s false. There is a non zero change he will try to proclaim martial law. I’d say one chance in ten. The odds of it working are much less than that, but the OP asks if he would TRY. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/215 "2020-12-29T22:16:10Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > There is a non zero change he will try to proclaim martial law. I’d say one chance in ten. What do you mean by “try”? Send out a tweet saying he was imposing it? Or give specific orders to specific military commands to take specific actions? Because Trump doesn’t have the attention span to do the latter even if he wanted to. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/216 "2020-12-29T22:17:36Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > What do you mean by “try”? Send out a tweet saying he was imposing it? Well, to Trump, that might constitute an attempt he might actually think would work. But it could also mean an executive order. He enjoys those. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/217 "2020-12-29T22:22:58Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > But it could also mean an executive order. He enjoys those. What would such an executive order say? Specifically? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/218 "2020-12-29T22:29:01Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > Wake me when platform shoes start to come back. Gosh, that would be wizard! > [@CaptMurdock](#): > > I wouldn’t be buried in platform shoes. You could if they’re big enough. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/219 "2020-12-29T22:29:26Z")
“I declare martial law in accordance with the Insurrection Act. The army is to hold new elections in the states I lost. Bring me a hamberder.” It might be stupid, but it constitutes an attempt. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294/220 "2020-12-29T22:32:12Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > You could if they’re big enough. Something like this, but a touch bigger: [![](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ae/e9/f9/aee9f9bf4a9ca5ad512440ac7fc4268f.jpg) ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ae/e9/f9/aee9f9bf4a9ca5ad512440ac7fc4268f.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-likely-is-it-that-trump-will-try-to-proclaim-martial-law/928294.md?page=12)