CHAOS AS POLITICAL STRATEGY

Donald Trump's approach to governance is frequently analyzed through chaos theory, where calculated unpredictability, disruption, and rapid, impulsive shifts are used as strategic tools to manage, dominate, or reshape political environments. This tactic aims to keep opponents off balance, control the agenda, and overturn established norms. President Trump's approach does not model chaos theory in a scientific sense, which is an interdisciplinary field of mathematics and science, but it appears to weaponize chaos in a calculated strategy. Observers argue that his game plan is aimed at ensuring that he remains the center of attention and in charge of the narrative. The constant conflict and perceived fighting against "the establishment " serves to energize his political base. More specifically, as of early 2026, Trump's chaos strategy appears designed to influence the midterm elections by disrupting standard political and electoral operations. These include federalizing elections, aggressively gerrymandering congressional districts, hawkish immigration enforcement, and voter roll purges among others. A by-product, and perhaps even the objective of this calculated strategic approach has been the escalating eruption of ever more confrontational protests across the country. In the September - October 2025 issue of "Mother Jones Daily," it's national voting rights correspondent Ari Bergman writes: "From nationalizing voter suppression to flooding the streets with federal agents, the president and his allies are using all the tricks in the authoritarian playbook to tilt the midterms in their favor." During an episode of the "Politics War Room" podcast, veteran journalist Al Hunt asked an increasingly common question from Democratic strategist James Carville: "Is Trump looking to spark enough protest to justify declaring martial law in 2026, thus suspending the election?" Carville responded that we ought to be concerned about this eventuality and remain on "high alert." The presumed ultimate objective of the administration's chaos strategy is to make use of the National Emergency Act to justify employing the Insurrection Act or declare martial law. The president can declare a national emergency without initial congressional approval. The Insurrection Act is a specific statute allowing military assistance in domestic law enforcement. It empowers the president to deploy active duty military or federalize the National Guard to suppress civil disorder, rebellion, or insurrection in the U.S. It has been invoked about 30 times in our history. The last time was in 1992, during the riots in Los Angeles following the acquittal of officers in the Rodney King beating trial. Martial Law, rooted in the president's constitutional Article II powers as Commander in Chief, involves a wholesale suspension of civil liberties. When invoked, military commanders can issue orders to civilians, as well as arrest and dispense punishment based on tactical needs of war rather than the civilian laws on the books. The only time this was tried on a national scale was when Abraham Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus rights during the Civil War to silence dissenters. Ceta Mitchell, a former Trump lawyer with 50 years of legal experience, who helped him attempts to overturn the 2020 election, ominously predicted that Trump would exercise some emergency powers to take control of the federal elections. However, even if President Trump's presumed strategy works to the extend that he feels justified in invoking emergency powers to respond to ever expanding volatile demonstrations, none of these authorizes him to suspend elections or alter their administration. A president remains in office during martial law. However, declaring it does not allow him or her to extend the term of office or bypass the Constitution. The "Election Clause" - Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution charges state and local offices with that responsibility. It appears that President Trump is beginning to recognize that. Nevertheless, he still believes that, in his mind, his administration has been so successful that he maintains that "When you think of it, we shouldn't even have an election." Since current polling tends to identify significant challenges for his Republican base in November, he has been busy amending his initial strategy. Aside from pressuring Texas to pass a redistricting plan that would add 5 more Republican seats in the House, he has vowed to "get rid of mail-in ballots" and " seriously controversial voting machines" through Executive Orders. As he explains on his own social media platform "Truth Social, " "If we do these two things, we will pick up 100 more seats." No matter where we place ourselves ideologically on the political spectrum, we have to remain vigilant. We could wake up one day to find out that the system we trust and grew up with has strategically been manipulated out of existence. Theo Wierdsma