It wasn't really a gambit because he really didn't have much of a choice. Even in the scant few instances (with the local Government's permission) he used the National Guard - the media swarmed him and painted him as Adolf Hitler calling in the Gestapo.
Donald Trump lost the 2020 election the second he won the 2016 one. There was no precedent for someone like him getting elected but he had to reasonably think that he would be able to work with the politicians to get some of his plans through - not realizing that the Democrats and some Republicans would be willing to fuck everyone and everything just to get in his way. They had form letters just to fuck with him - they were planning his impeachment weeks before he even took office.
Donald Trump could have done a shamanistic ritual that revived Ruth Bader Ginsburg at age 30 and put her up for the supreme court nomination and Democrats would still be against whoever he put up. You'd be reading news stories about how Ruth Bader Ginsburg violently raped Christine Ford - despite the fact they were never in the same room together ever once in their entire lives (but they were, suspiciously, once in the same state).
The Democrats clearly were going to do everything in their power to stop Donald Trump, including letting their own constituents die of COVID, letting anarchists commit arson, letting anarchists establish "autonomous zones" and take over abandoned police stations. What the fuck is he supposed to do against someone like that?