Mary Trump Warns Donald Trump Is Setting Stage for Martial Law Before Midterms

Mary Trump warned on her podcast Tuesday that her uncle, President Donald Trump, may be preparing to declare martial law before the midterm elections. She was reacting to a Nebraska rally where he said Iran could "take out" Los Angeles or San Diego.

The president spoke Monday in Grand Island, Nebraska, campaigning for Republican Senator Pete Ricketts, who faces independent Dan Osborn in one of the closest Senate races in the country. Ricketts leads by 0.1 points in PolitiKool's polling average for Nebraska.

Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist and one of the president's most persistent critics, said the remark should not be dismissed as bluster.

"This is one of those things that cannot be swept under the rug because Donald always signals his intentions," she said on The Mary Trump Podcast. She added that people should watch for the possibility "he is setting the stage to declare martial law for some reason before the midterm election because he is desperate."

She offered no evidence for that prediction, and there is no public sign of any such plan.

What Donald Trump Said About Los Angeles and San Diego

The line came in the middle of a riff about gasoline prices and the war with Iran. Trump told the crowd that prices were "a little bit high" but called that "a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe."

He then went on: "They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay, and it's going to be over with very soon," according to ABC7 Los Angeles.

The meaning is disputed. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said Trump "was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn't been stopped," NBC Los Angeles reported. California Democrats read it differently. Governor Gavin Newsom said the president was "advocating for an attack on 10+ million U.S. residents," and San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said his city is "never a 'small price to pay.'"

Mary Trump went further than either reading. "Those are the comments of a psychopath," she said, describing a man for whom "the deaths potentially of tens of millions of people are worth it." Trump did not mention a death toll or nuclear weapons in the remark, and the casualty framing is hers.

Gas Prices and Oil Under Trump

The federal figures below test the first claim, not the second. They compare this month with the same point last year, when Trump was already in office, so they say nothing about prices under Biden. On that year-over-year basis, prices are well above where they were.

The national average for regular gasoline was $4.354 a gallon in the week of Oct. 5, up $1.23 from a year earlier, according to the Energy Information Administration. Diesel averaged $6.199, nearly $2.49 above its level a year ago. Gasoline did fall 11 cents from the week before. PolitiKool's gas price tracker puts the national average at $4.35.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, traded at $101.43 a barrel on Tuesday morning, about $35.50 higher than a year ago, Fortune reported.

Mary Trump said the president has "declared dozens of times that the war has been won" or is about to be. On Monday, he told the crowd it was "essentially almost over with."

Voters are unconvinced on the economy. Just 29.7 percent approve of Trump's handling of it, according to PolitiKool's polling average.

What the Law Says About Martial Law

Martial law is not defined in the Constitution or in an act of Congress. The nearest power is the Insurrection Act of 1807, which lets a president deploy troops to enforce civilian law when rebellion or obstruction makes ordinary enforcement "impracticable." That is not the same as replacing civilian government with military rule, PolitiFact has explained. Presidents have invoked the act in cases ranging from school integration to the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Mary Trump tied her warning to the president's standing. He is campaigning while his approval sits at 37.6 percent, according to PolitiKool's polling average, and Democrats lead the generic congressional ballot by 8.1 points.

'Pretend That I'm Running'

Trump also asked the Nebraska crowd to "pretend that I'm running." He promised $5,000 to every adult citizen if Republicans win the House and Senate, calling it a "Trump dividend." Mary Trump linked the money to tariff revenue, noting that the Supreme Court ruled he lacked authority to impose some of those tariffs under emergency powers.

Mary Trump took up his request. "A vote for Republican is in essence, not just a vote for him, it's a vote for his continued impunity," she said.

Whether the president's appearances help or hurt the candidates he is stumping for in red states like Nebraska will be tested in four weeks.