Does Trump really need the military in order to declare martial law?

[Fiendish Thingy]

10. Martial law explicitly means the military enforces the law.

Sheriffs and local law enforcement cannot be federalized.

Federal officers are about 5,000, hardly enough to control a nation of 300 million. If you abandon the border crossings and close the prisons, you might get a couple of thousand more. Still not enough.

He could federalize the national guard, regardless of whether the state’s governors were “friendly”, but he would have to contend with the command structure refusing to follow unlawful orders, as they have previously stated.