Financial Times chief U.S. commentator and columnist based in Washington, D.C., Edward Luce, today released his op-ed titled ‘Trump’s ominous ICE security state,’ with the subtitle, ‘The nation of immigrants’ shift to mass deportation is among the most shocking turns in US history.’
On MSNBC, Luce discussed President Donald Trump‘s decision to send armed and masked military soldiers, ICE and law enforcement officials into MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, without a request from the governor, which prompted Mayor Karen Bass to sue the Trump administration. (Bass reported on Saturday that the court gave the city a temporary restraining order.)
On MSNBC, Luce said: “Imagine that MacArthur Park scene around polling stations in November 2026. Imagine whatever pretext is used for them [Trump Administration] to declare in a swing state or in a swing county that there are national security concerns with illegals, and what effect that would have on voting turnout.”
Not just “dress rehearsals,” @EdwardGLuce, but maneuvers designed to normalize martial law https://t.co/Z0f0z0AGh2
— Laurence Tribe
(@tribelaw) July 9, 2025
Luce added: “You don’t really need to use your imagination. We’re seeing dress rehearsals for that kind of thing in MacArthur Park and elsewhere.”
Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Laurence Tribe, an expert on U.S. constitutional law, responded to Luce: “Not just ‘dress rehearsals,’ @EdwardGLuce, but maneuvers designed to normalize martial law.” Luce replied to Tribe, “yes that’s a better way of putting it.”
Tribe also elaborates in another post about why the idea that Trump will try to “cancel” the midterms is probably wrong, but that maneuvers like the one described above could be used instead to help the midterms “go his way.”
If you are worried that Trump will cancel the midterm elections, just do the math:
435 House seats and 35 Senate seats all EXPIRE on 1/3/27, so ordering the 11/3/26 elections not to take place would sentence the HOUSE to DEATH. It would also strip 35 States (including swing…
— Laurence Tribe
“The real threat isn’t Trump’s cancelling the midterms,” Tribe writes, convinced that even the MAGA-aligned Senate would convict a president who attempted such an anti-democratic move, “It’s his abusing his military and other powers to ensure that the midterms go his way.”