Trump is reportedly meeting with Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, asking about martial law idea

Michael Flynn
(Image credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

President Trump held a heated, chaotic meeting in the Oval Office over several hours Friday night, and the senior White House officials present were alarmed that Trump was entertaining extreme ideas to overthrow an election he lost by more than seven million votes and 74 electoral votes, several sources told The New York Times, Axios, and CNN. Fringy lawyer Sidney Powell was there pushing her international conspiracy theory about voting machines, and recently pardoned former national security advisers Michael Flynn was also in attendance, the sources said.

Two days before the meeting Flynn had suggested on Newsmax that Trump essentially declare martial law, sending the U.S. military into "swing states" to make them "rerun" the election. "At one point in the meeting on Friday, Mr. Trump asked about that idea," the Times reports. "It wasn't clear whether Trump endorsed the idea," CNN adds, "but others in the room forcefully pushed back and shot it down."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.