Democratic political strategist James Carville floated the idea Wednesday that President Donald Trump will impose martial law in order to prevent Americans from going to the polls to vote in the 2026 midterm elections.
But conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly did not allow the preposterous theory to go unchallenged.
Carville has clearly fallen back on the failed “Trump is a dictator” narrative that served Democrats so well during the 2024 general election, when Trump won a seven swing-state sweep on his way back to the White House
On Tuesday, as Mediaite reported, Carville had floated the idea that Trump would try to tamper with the midterms to avoid impeachment by a Democratic House in the second half of his term.
On Wednesday, NewsNation host Chris Cuomo raised the topic of the midterms, asking Carville to expound on that.
Carville started with elections scheduled for this year, when voters in New Jersey and Virginia elect governors and state lawmakers.
“Virginia and New Jersey are going to be a Democratic blowout,” the former Bill Clinton campaign adviser said.
The states’ off-year elections are often seen as barometers for how the rest of the country will vote a year later.
“And I think [Trump’s] going to see that this ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ is about 25 points underwater. It’s going to be 30 points underwater,” Carville continued. “[Trump’s] going to see a massive defeat coming, and he’s going to try to do anything he can to extricate himself from that defeat.”
“And I would not put it at all past him to try to call martial law or declare that there’s some kind of national emergency in the country or anything like that because the hoof prints are coming. You can hear them, and they’re going to get a shellacking in November of 2026,” Carville said.
Cuomo asked O’Reilly to respond.
“Martial law. My God,” the conservative commentator said. “We’re going to have tanks in my driveway. No, I don’t believe that will happen.”
O’Reilly rightly argued that Carville was engaging in scare tactics.
“I think that the economy will dictate who wins in the midterms,” O’Reilly said, adding that the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which Congress passed and Trump signed on Friday, will spur economic growth and help the Republicans win.
Earlier in the program, O’Reilly and Carville had debated the efficacy of the legislation.
Cuomo introduced the subject, noting the Republican argument is that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 resulted in strong economic growth, and the “Big Beautiful Bill” extends those rates and includes other pro-growth tax reforms. Therefore, the legislation will have similar results.
“Do you accept that premise?” Cuomo asked Carville.
“Absolutely not,” the Democrat responded. “There is no evidence that cutting taxes on rich people does anything but explode the deficit.”
Across-the-board tax cuts — like those backed by John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Trump — did ignite the economy and actually raised revenues, due to growth creating new jobs and salaries and profits. In other words, the cuts increased the overall economic pie, rather than trying to take a larger piece out of the existing one, as today’s Democrats, unlike Kennedy, are wont to do.
As JFK explained to the Economic Club of New York in 1962, “It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low, and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now.”
Nonetheless, Carville predicted that the “Big Beautiful Bill” will result in larger deficits, more inflation, and overall hurt Americans economically.
O’Reilly disagreed, arguing the U.S. economy is consumer-driven and the legislation will put more money in Americans’ pockets.
O’Reilly noted the Democrats were giving the same doomsday predictions in the spring about Trump’s tariff policies: inflation would spike, the economy would tank, etc. “That did not happen,” he said.
O’Reilly also disputed Carville’s description of the “Big Beautiful Bill.”
“There are no cuts for the rich. All this does is keep what was legislated in 2017 … The brackets will stay the same,” he said.
In other words, the across-the-board tax cuts at all income levels remain in place thanks to the “Big Beautiful Bill.”
Fact check: True. That includes the top bracket of 37 percent for the highest wage earners, so there’s no giveaway to the rich.
The legislation also builds on the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act by increasing the standard deduction for taxpayers by $1,000 for single filers and the child tax credit to a maximum of $2,500.
Additionally, the “Big Beautiful Bill” fulfills Trump’s campaign promises of no tax on tips and no tax on overtime. Further, it increases the standard deduction for seniors by $4,000, meaning most of the Social Security income an average recipient receives will be federal income tax-free.
All these reforms are not directed at the wealthy, but at everyday Americans trying to provide for their families or seniors who may be living on a fixed income.
Carville is a typical Democrat pundit, using scare tactics and lies to try to stymy the Republican agenda in a bid to win back power. To what end? So they can raise taxes and grow the government to control more of Americans’ daily lives. That is certainly the record of the party in the 21st century.
Tune out the noise. Trump and the GOP are well on their way to Making America Great Again.
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