My take: It's Trump's tantrum. And he is stroking his conspiracy laden base. Keeping them strung along with hints of some kind of strong arm tactic to stay in power so he can continue raising funds.
But Trump's advisers and thus Trump knows that he's impotent. Nothing he does will allow him to stay in power. Fantasies about martial law feed the base and keep fund raising bucks pouring in. They also feed Trump's ego.
But in the end, he's can't pull it off. Were he to attempt martial law to stay in power the majority of government and military would refuse and would put himself in mortal danger for treason.
This is all performance theater for his base.
Also, remember, Trump and his admin are more incompetent than anything else.
First we had stupid Watergate. And now we've had a stupid coup.
Let's just hope the stimulus gets passed soon