Many incumbent or retired US generals criticize Flynn, a former Trump adviser, for recommending the President to put martial law in place to hold re-election.

Michael Flynn, a former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, on December 18 announced on the far-right channel Newsmax that the White House boss "should put martial law" and deploy military forces to battlefield states.

A day later, Trump invited Flynn and attorney Sidney Powell to the White House.

Former US national security adviser Michael Flynn on Newsmax channel on 18/12.

However, it also caused fierce controversy in American public opinion, especially military commanders, because martial law is closely related to the role of the US armed forces.

In fact, US Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Army Chief of Staff James McConville stated in a joint statement that "the US military has no role to play in determining the outcome of a US election", although

Previously, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley also affirmed that the US military would follow the tradition of not engaging in domestic politics for the past 240 years.

In the meantime, retired US military generals have been more aggressive with the idea Flynn raised, warning him to stop making similar claims.

"You know well that mobilizing the military for 're-election' is an utterly absurd task," said General Tony Thomas, former commander of the Special Operations Command, on Twitter.

Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a former air force lieutenant colonel, said Flynn's idea of giving the military control over elections was "crazy", while some lawmakers even criticized comments.

Trump on 20/12 wrote on Twitter that the information he could "establish martial law" was "fake news".