Donald Trump Suggests Using Military to Stop ‘Radical Left’ on Election Day: ‘The Enemy from Within’

Former President Donald Trump recently made a suggestion that the military could be used to shut down “radical left lunatics.”

During an interview on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures on Sunday, Oct. 13, Trump was asked about President Joe Biden’s previous comment that he fears there could be chaos from MAGA supporters on Election Day.

The former president reacted by saying he does not think his supporters — who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to prevent Biden's election victory from being certified in Congress — will ignite chaos, saying the real election threat is "the enemy from within."

“I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics,” he continued. “And I think it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard or, if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”

Though the context of Trump's initial remark implied that he was talking about policing militant people stirring up trouble on Election Day, the former president dug a deeper hole for himself by also telling Fox News that Democrats like California Rep. Adam Schiff — who led the prosecution in Trump's first impeachment trial — are part of the "enemy from within."

"The thing that’s tougher to handle are these lunatics that we have inside, like Adam Schiff," he said later in the interview. He then called those people "more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries."

Following the comment about policing liberals with the National Guard or military, Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign responded, stating that Trump’s remarks should "alarm every American who cares about their freedom and security."

In a statement shared with The Hill, Harris’ senior campaign adviser and senior spokesperson Ian Sams said, "Donald Trump is suggesting that his fellow Americans are worse ‘enemies’ than foreign adversaries, and he is saying he would use the military against them."

Sams continued by calling attention to Trump's previous claim that he would briefly be a "dictator" if he took office in January 2025.

"Taken with his vow to be a dictator on ‘day one,’ calls for the ‘termination’ of the Constitution, and plans to surround himself with sycophants who will give him unchecked, unprecedented power if he returns to office, this should alarm every American who cares about their freedom and security," Sams added. "What Donald Trump is promising is dangerous, and returning him to office is simply a risk Americans cannot afford."

Trump's new remark about the "radical left" comes after a series of aggressive statements about how he will handle his adversaries if elected president.

When Fox News' Laura Ingraham recently asked him to confirm that he wouldn't weaponize the justice system against his political enemies, he said that "a lot of people" want him to do just that.

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After Trump baselessly accused Biden and Harris of playing politics with hurricane relief efforts, two former White House officials alleged that it was Trump who wielded disaster aid as a political tool during his presidency, refusing to provide California with federal relief for a 2018 wildfire until they showed him that the affected area was Republican-leaning.

Trump seemingly vowed to do it again while speaking to California voters on the campaign trail in October, threatening that he would refuse to give the heavily Democratic state "fire money" down the road if the governor doesn't meet his demands.

The idea of using the military to police liberals hits at a similar theme found in Project 2025, a far-right playbook for Trump's presidency that was drafted by his allies, about refocusing federal agents.

The Project 2025 mandate suggests that the FBI should be overhauled to increase federal law enforcement presence in select areas of the U.S. where the administration believes its laws aren't being enforced strictly enough.

It also advises that a potential Trump administration should sue local government officials who don't prosecute crimes to the administration's liking.