What will happen?

As most people will have seen, in various places around the US, people in neighbourhoods have turned out to harass the Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) as they attempted to pick up assorted people for detention or deportation¹.

This came to a head when ICE raids in Los Angeles which reportedly led to the arrest of dozens of people from assorted workplaces around the city, engendered several large protests, including one outside a gaol where some of the detainees were believed to be held. Los Angeles Police did not take part in the immigration raids, but were deployed to quell what was termed civil unrest. The police were in full riot gear, wielding batons, tear gas guns as they faced the protesters. They also used pepper spray and ‘flash-bang’ concussion grenades².

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement condemning the immigration raids, saying, “these tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city”².

The Mango Mussolini (Trump) said he would take control of the California National Guard and deploy them to “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester.” It wasn’t clear when the troops would arrive. Governor of California, Gavin Newsom said that it was “purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.” He later added that Trump wants a spectacle and urged people not to give them one by becoming violent. The idiot Secretary of Defence, Hegseth stated that “If violence continues, active-duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilised — they are on high alert”³.

While Newsom suggests Trump wants a spectacle, it is more likely that the Mango Mussolini wants a ‘Reichstag Fire’.

On February 27, 1933, the German parliament (Reichstag) building burned down. The Nazi leadership and its coalition partners used the fire to claim that Communists were planning a violent uprising. They claimed that emergency legislation was needed to prevent this. The resulting act, commonly known as the Reichstag Fire Decree, abolished a number of constitutional protections and paved the way for Nazi dictatorship. Implemented one day after the fire, the decree suspended the right to assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and other constitutional protections, including all restraints on police investigations. The decree permitted the regime to arrest and incarcerate political opponents without specific charge, to dissolve political organizations, and to confiscate private property. The decree also gave the regime the authority to overrule state and local laws and overthrow state and local governments⁴.

On his first day back in the White House, the Mango Mussolini signed an executive order declaring an emergency at the US southern border and directed his top officials to evaluate whether to invoke a rarely used 19th-century law in response to immigration concerns. The Insurrection Act of 1807 allows the president to use active-duty military personnel to perform law-enforcement duties inside the US⁵.

This includes the National Guard – a branch of the US armed forces traditionally reserved for domestic emergencies and disasters, and which Trump has just sent to Los Angeles⁵.

A president can invoke the law if they determine that “unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion” against the government make it “impracticable to enforce” US law “by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings”. Once invoked, troops could be tasked with a range of duties, from quelling civil unrest and enforcing court orders to arresting and detaining migrants⁵.

Because the Insurrection Act was written in broad terms, with little specific guidance on how and when the powers can be used, it gives a president wide latitude in deciding when to mobilise military personnel for domestic operations. However, it only allows the armed forces to assist civilian government, which retains control⁵.

If the National Guard encounter perceived violence, this could be used by the fascists in the White House to use this act to send in not just the national guard, but the armed forces to quell perceived unrest. This has now happened.

However, another option is open to the moron in the White House; declaring martial law. Neither the Constitution nor federal law explicitly authorises a president to declare martial law. Although the Supreme Court has held that states can declare martial law, it has never specifically held that the president can. Therefore, it’s unclear whether the president can legally declare martial law. Despite this, several presidents throughout history have done so⁶.

Martial law refers to instances when a nation’s armed forces step in and assume the governance of an area. Officials most often impose martial law when civilian authority over an area has stopped functioning, like in the case of an insurrection or natural disaster⁶.

Throughout American history, the federal and state governments have declared martial law over 60 times. The constitution does not define martial law and is silent as to who can impose it. However, the modern interpretation allows the president and state officials to declare “degrees of martial law in specific circumstances.”

Some scholars believe the president has the executive power to declare martial law. Others believe the president needs congressional authorisation to impose martial law in a civilian area. Therefore, Congress may be the only governmental branch that can legally declare martial law, and the president can only act according to its action⁶.

While these cover much the same ground, one thing is clear: one or other of them will be used to allow Trump to give himself dictatorial powers, and it will be after violent protests against ICE raids, or using agents provocateurs to deliver or incite that violence.

If either of these are used, it will give Trump the ability to do all sorts of things to state governments, but it will not allow him to postpone or cancel the midterm elections, due in late 2026. While a president could technically declare martial law, legal checks still apply. The Supreme Court made that clear in the middle of the 19th century that martial law can’t override civil liberties if civilian courts are still operating⁷.

Given the current political climate and the large losses suffered by Republicans in local and special elections, it is likely then that the Democrats will obtain substantial majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate at the midterm elections in late 2026. This will likely lead to the impeachment and conviction of Trump and his removal from office and, hopefully, his incarceration. However, all that means is that eyeliner Vance will become president. In this situation, it is likely that he will be constantly overruled by Congress. Whether that it enough to stop all the depredations of the Project 2025 christofascists is another thing.

Sources

1. https://www.npr.org/2025/06/06/nx-s1-5425524/ice-raids-grow-tense-as-protesters-confront-immigration-agents
2. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/riot-police-anti-ice-protesters-square-off-los-angeles-after-raids-2025-06-07/
3. https://apnews.com/article/immigration-raids-los-angeles-2d1d5e2f638da600c4b34fe8bf8cf3aa
4. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-reichstag-fire
5. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9qwez9zz7jo
6. https://constitution.findlaw.com/article2/annotation09.html
7. https://libbysuethewriter.medium.com/could-martial-law-cancel-an-election-heres-what-the-law-says-048d0b8c911d