he highest-ranking officer in the U.S. military says there are no plans to send troops to polling places during November’s midterm congressional elections, addressing concerns among Democrats that the Trump administration could use the military to interfere with the vote.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the statement in a letter to Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who recently asked Caine and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to confirm they won’t send troops to the polls.
“The Joint Force has no plans to send Federal military personnel or Federalized members of the National Guard to polling places during the 2026 elections,” Caine said in the letter to Slotkin, which was obtained Monday by The Associated Press. “Likewise, the Joint Force has no plans to use such personnel to seize ballots, voting machines, or other election-related material.”
How’s the sand tasting? You seem to have your head buried in it.
The executive branch currently owns the judiciary. They follow his orders. Any resistance is temporary and just for show.
This has been done before in other countries, where liberal democracies have fallen to dictatorships.
If it comes to pass, you won’t mind because it hurts the people you’re against. It gives you convenient scapegoats for the economic frustrations you feel, even though they’re being exacerbated by capitalism and this corrupt administration. Just like everyone else who enables this shit, you tell us there’s nothing to worry about until it actually happens.
Even though it’s not technically “martial law,” as in the military doesn’t control the government, Trump will simply utilize the Insurrection Act to take control of the National Guard, after contesting or negating elections results under the pretense of a “National Emergency.”
SCOTUS is there to simply sign off on whatever Trump wants. He handpicked obedient loyalists to take the majority vote.
Hesgeth is on a quest to fire dissident military officials and replace them with Trump loyalists.
Trump has been successful thus far in steamrolling right over democratic institutions with zero accountability for his actions. Sternly-worded court orders and warnings aren’t going to stop this administration. A GOP-controlled Congress and SCOTUS will stand idly by and let him have his way. The hypocrisy of claiming to love liberty and the constitution while consistently violating both of those things.
https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2025/09/federal-force-and-the-specter-of-martial-law-a-cautionary-tale/
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/10/trump-news-judges-warning-martial-law.html
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/12/is-martial-law-coming-next/
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-dangers-of-project-2025-global-lessons-in-authoritarianism/
https://www.phillyvoice.com/everyone-comparing-donald-trump-wrong-fascist/
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/us/politics/hegseth-blocks-army-promotions.html
https://m.beforeitsnews.com/libertarian/2026/08/northcom-conplan-3900-a-prelude-to-insurrection-act-invocation-2851426.html
This is all centrist media by the way, and one article by a libertarian think tank, and you all love to claim your own warped interpretation of “free-market” libertarianism in support of fascism.
My guy, the national guard was already sent into states without their request. And where are they now?
Actually, they’re still patrolling DC.
Have you heard of legal precedent? It’s already been done. Trump has paved the way to do it repeatedly with zero obstruction. His test of the legal system was successful. The legal system has failed to stop him thus far. Any appeals at the federal level are just waiting to be dismissed by SCOTUS.
He’s already violated international law and invaded Venezuela, installing a puppet regime under false pretenses. He started an unjustified war with Iran. He has plans to invade Greenland and Cuba. He knows no limits and laws will not stop his agenda.
Are we expecting a GOP-controlled Congress to suddenly grow a conscience and stop him before the election? And how will they stop him? Finger-wagging? The only thing he will respect is force.
DC is a special case because it’s not a state. The legal precedent is now working against them in this situation, because it was dubious whether it was legal when they were first deployed to places like California and Illinois and courts have now ruled that it was not, so now there is no NG in those states that have not requested them.
Cool, he can override all that by invoking the Insurrection Act. I don’t see any motions at the federal level to restrict that power.
And WTH is the rationale to keep the NG actively deployed in DC? They’re not a LE agency. Simple… it’s to terrorize citizens into silence and submission under the false pretense of a “crisis.”
Just like the false pretense to use ICE to suppress the “massive wave of invaders.”
You’re arguing at the same time that legal precedent both does and doesn’t matter based on how it fits your argument.
And you’re failing to see how Trump doesn’t care about either of those things, anyway. Legal precedent is just a code word that will be used to justify anything Trump wants. When SCOTUS sets precedent, AKA justification, all challenges at the lower level of courts can be dismissed. They’ll be beyond reproach. Trump’s supporters can then claim everything they do is legal, since their rigged Court told them so.
And here’s more evidence of this, from the fairly conservative NY Times.. If y’all are so concerned with “fair elections,” why are you trying so hard to mess with electoral process, and violate state’s rights to conduct a normal election process?
If he doesn’t care about legal precedent or court rulings, why was the National Guard pulled out of those states?
Simple. His test worked.
Trump’s handlers have a fair amount of political savvy. He never goes full in all at once. He repeatedly tests the boundaries of what he can do, and gains ground every time.
He could’ve kept the troops there as long as he wanted. Who would’ve stopped him?
Yup.
Fascists don’t capture power all at once. It’s a process of gradual erosion.