What LA’s protest crackdown reveals about Trump’s 2026 plans

In a stark and unsettling piece, The Atlantic outlines a plausible scenario in which Donald Trump, now back in the White House, could exploit unrest and emergency powers to seize control of the democratic process in the lead-up to the 2026 midterm elections. What initially looks like a localised dispute—Trump ordering National Guard troops to suppress immigration-related protests in Los Angeles—unfolds into something far more strategic: a test run for a potential democratic subversion plan.

The article begins with a critique of the theatrics surrounding Trump’s recent deployment threats. With California boasting over 75,000 law enforcement officers and nearly 9,000 in Los Angeles alone, the suggestion that federal troops are needed to suppress a handful of protestors is, on its face, absurd. The real purpose, the article contends, is not law enforcement but political spectacle—manufacturing chaos to justify federal overreach.

This brings readers to the heart of the analysis: a three-step blueprint for authoritarian control. First, provoke visible unrest. Then, declare an emergency. Finally, assume direct control over local functions, including voting operations. The authors point to Trump allies who called for similar moves in 2020, but who acted too late. Trump, unable to weaponise the military back then, resorted to legal challenges and ultimately the failed Capitol insurrection. This time, the infrastructure of resistance within the federal government may be gone, replaced by loyalists like Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth—men who are untested, unqualified, and wholly beholden to Trump.

Historical precedent is used not to justify Trump’s actions, but to show how emergency powers have been manipulated before—from Ulysses S. Grant’s crackdown on the KKK in 1871 to election delays in U.S. territories following natural disasters. Trump’s 2018 declaration of a “national emergency” at the border is offered as a dress rehearsal for the current moment.

The article also probes the psychology behind Trump’s seemingly self-destructive decisions. Why pursue such extreme policies that risk alienating voters before midterms? The answer: he’s not planning to lose. Trump’s actions suggest a leader who is fully aware of looming electoral risks and who is laying groundwork to avoid them—not by campaigning harder but by rewriting the rules of the game.

Ultimately, The Atlantic delivers more than political commentary; it issues a warning. The fusion of loyalist leadership, expansive emergency powers, and a precedent for federal intrusion creates the conditions for an authoritarian power grab cloaked in the language of law and order. The Los Angeles deployment may not be about riot control at all—it may be about normalising the idea of martial intervention in domestic governance, especially in opposition-held states.

By Vugar Khalilov