Trump: Military could be needed to preserve order on Election Day

Former President Donald Trump said that “if really necessary” the military should be called for “some sick people, radical-left lunatics,” when asked about if he is expecting chaos on Election Day in an interview Sunday with Maria Bartiromo.

“I think the bigger problem is the people from within. We have some very bad people, some sick people, radical-left lunatics,” Trump said to Bartiromo on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “It should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard or if really necessary by the military. Because they can’t let that happen.”

When Bartiromo asked if he expects chaos on Election Day, Trump said, “No, not from the side that votes for Trump.” He also said when it comes to trouble on Election Day, the problem is “not even the people that have come in,” even if they are the ones who otherwise are “totally destroying our country.” Instead, Trump said he saw the enemy as coming “from within.”

The idea of deploying the military on Election Day would be an unprecedented intrusion on the voting process, though the Insurrection Act of 1807, enacted during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, gives the president the authority to deploy the National Guard and the military to combat insurrections or other disorder. During his presidency, Trump warned he would invoke the law in response to the protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, but ultimately did not do so.

The Harris campaign quickly responded to the comment: “Donald Trump is suggesting that his fellow Americans are worse ‘enemies’ than foreign adversaries, and he is saying he would use the military against them,” Harris campaign spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement.

“Taken with his vow to be a dictator on ‘day one,’ calls for the ‘termination’ of the Constitution, and plans to surround himself with sycophants who will give him unchecked, unprecedented power if he returns to office, this should alarm every American who cares about their freedom and security,” Sams said. “What Donald Trump is promising is dangerous, and returning him to office is simply a risk Americans cannot afford.”

Bartiromo noted that President Joe Biden has said he does not know whether the transition will be peaceful, which Trump dismissed saying “he doesn’t have any idea what’s happening.” Trump reiterated later in the interview how he believes the “enemy from within” to be more dangerous than foreign adversaries, like China or Russia.

“The enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries because if you have a smart president, he can handle them pretty easily,” Trump said later in the wide-ranging interview. “But the thing that’s tougher to handle are these lunatics that we have inside like Adam Schiff.”

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff was the impeachment manager on Trump’s first impeachment and is likely to become California’s next senator. Trump called Schiff “a total sleazebag” and “Adam shifty Schiff” during the Bartiromo interview. On Saturday, Trump held a rally in Coachella, California, where Schiff responded to Trump’s bashing of him and California.

“Yet another nonsensical rant about me filled with tired insults, lies about voting booths, and more, this time in my home state of California,” Schiff said in a post on X during Trump’s rally. “Seriously, Donald. Why are you so obsessed with me?”

In the interview, Trump also revealed new information on other topics, such as how if he is elected president, he plans to give Elon Musk a “cost-cutting” position. Trump said it would not be a Cabinet position — “he doesn’t want to be in the Cabinet, he wants to be in charge of cost-cutting” — and that it is a job Musk is “dying to do.”

“He’s a great guy. He’s given us a really powerful endorsement,” Trump said about Musk, who he noted was campaigning for him in Pennsylvania during the interview. “He’s actually campaigning because he says if we don’t win, we’re not going to have a country.”

Trump also said he was aware of conspiracy theories that the coronavirus was manufactured to help push him out of office, but did not believe them.

“A lot of people said they did the Covid thing because they wanted to see if they could get this guy out of office. I don’t believe that, I think it was just incompetence,” Trump said. “I think somebody came out of the Wuhan lab, had lunch with his girlfriend, she caught it and died.”

As for the next three weeks to the election, Trump said he is confident in his position in the polls in the swing states. He also added that he thinks the border is now a bigger issue than the economy.

“We’ve been led by a man who’s in great decline, and now we have a woman who’s worse than he is. And we have to win the election,” Trump said later in the interview. “November 5th is going to be the most important day in the history of our country.”