House Democrat sees Trump speech to military as pretext for canceling 2028 election

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) expressed concern Tuesday that President Trump’s warning about a “war from within” could serve as a pretext for calling off the 2028 election.

In an interview on “The Jim Acosta Show,” the New York Democrat called Trump’s speech to military leaders at Quantico, Va., Tuesday “really dangerous,” pointing to the president’s characterization of a federal crackdown on crime in major cities as a necessary war.

“It is trying to manufacture a crisis so that Donald Trump can continue to take more and more authoritarian actions and so that he can usurp more and more power,” Goldman said of Trump's remarks.

“Ultimately, my view is that he is looking ahead to 2028, where he will say that for cockamamie made-up reasons, like he's talking to these generals about, that, ‘Well, look, we're being invaded from within, from the enemy within, and we've got to keep our borders safe, and that's what our focus has to be. We can't possibly have an election under these circumstances.’”

Host Jim Acosta responded, “You really think that could happen?”

“Yeah, I think that's where a lot of this is heading towards,” Goldman said. “I think that's why he's floating a third term. I think that's why he's talking about this language of a war, of enemy within, of invasions, of securing our border.”

Goldman said Trump “deserves credit” for securing the border, but he said the border is now secure and there is no crisis.

“There's no invasion. There's no war. This is all manufactured and made up by him to usurp more power for himself,” Goldman added.

Trump told military leaders Tuesday that defending the homeland was the military’s “most important priority” and signaled the leaders in the room could be tasked with aiding in federal interventions in Democratic-led cities.

“What they've done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles. They’re very unsafe places, and we’re going to straighten them out one by one,” Trump said. “And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war, too. It’s a war from within.”

“America is under invasion from within. We’re under invasion from within,” Trump said. “No different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms.”

The White House has already directed the deployment of National Guard troops across Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Tenn., as part of an effort to quell crime in those cities. This week, Trump announced he would send troops to Portland, Ore.

Trump has for weeks threatened to deploy the National Guard to other cities such as Chicago, New York and New Orleans, despite state and local officials pushing back and saying such a move would inflame tensions.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for a response.