The establishment is reportedly in the beginning stages of plotting what appears to be a military coup against former President Donald Trump if voters reelect him as commander-in-chief.
The plot highlights the extent to which the establishment fears Trump’s potential return to power. If Trump wins reelection, he vowed to deconstruct the administrative state — the apparatus of unelected bureaucrats who create binding rules with, without, or against the law.
“[B]racing” for Trump’s victory amid positive polling, the coup would appear under the guise of Trump allegedly converting “the nonpartisan U.S. military into the muscular arm of his political agenda,” NBC News reported Sunday.
The establishment worries “there may be nothing stopping a president from mobilizing the military to intervene in elections, police American streets or quash domestic protests” and that “the military’s role is unique in that soldiers and sailors are trained to obey the commander-in-chief but are told not to follow illegal orders.”
The establishment’s reported coup includes “legal action” against Trump and “quietly devising plans to try to foil any efforts to expand presidential power, which could include pressuring the military to cater to his political needs.”
- “We’re already starting to put together a team to think through the most damaging types of things that he [Trump] might do so that we’re ready to bring lawsuits if we have to,” Mary McCord, executive director of the Institution for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law, told NBC News.
- “He’s going to be one creative motherf—– when it comes to trying to figure out how to abuse it [power]. Whatever your guess is, open up your imagination a little more,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) told the outlet.
- “He’s a clear and present danger to our democracy,” added William Cohen, a former Republican senator from Maine and defense secretary in the Clinton administration. “His support is solid. And I don’t think people understand what living in a dictatorship would mean.”
Republicans are highly critical of the plot, suggesting it would be an unconstitutional coup against the president. “NBC reports the left is plotting ways to have [the] military not be under civilian control,” Fox News contributor Molly Hemingway posted on X. “This dangerous and unconstitutional usurpation of power is being framed by NBC as good because it will undermine Trump if he is freely and fairly elected by Americans.”
Sean Davis, CEO of the Federalist, said Democrats will justify immoral acts against Trump to preserve their power. “Whenever Democrats accuse Trump of doing something, it’s a guarantee that Democrats are planning to do that very thing against Trump,” he said. “Which means Democrats are preparing to use the military to steal the 2024 election and prevent their opponents from lawfully taking power.”
Far-leftist organizations, many law firms, federal agency bureaucrats, and establishment lawmakers comprise the administrative state. Trump refers to the administrative state as the “swamp” and the “deep state.”
The administrative state uses its rule-making ability to essentially usurp the separation of powers between the three branches of government by creating a so-called fourth branch of government not created by the Constitution.
“We will demolish the deep state,” Trump said at a Michigan rally in June.
“We will expel the warmongers from our government. We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists. And we will throw off the sick political class that hates our country,” he added.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.