Yeah, its not. Democratic lawmakers belong to a different branch of government. Everything Musk is doing is being done with the authority of President Trump (who is repugnant and vile and stands for everything I oppose) who as the head of the executive branch has control of the individual agencies. Or did you not take 5th grade Civics?
Calling anything you don't like "a coup" devalues the word and when REALLY bad shit happens (which is entirely possible, it just hasn't happened yet) nobody will listen to you because you cried wolf too many times.
Read the article. I can already tell you didn't and instead are buying into the hysteria that usually envelopes liberals.
So is there a new branch of government that we don’t know about called Elon Musk? Elon Musk has absolutely no authority to do what he is doing. Because Trump “gave him that authority “ is a straw man. Trump does not by any constitutional description have the authority to do any of this. Call it whatever you like, it is an unconstitutional power grab that places an unelected private citizen in control of a large piece of the federal government. I’ll choose to call it a coup.
This is ignorance 101. The majority of hires and appointees to a presidential administration are non-elected and not approved by the senate. The President can select advisors. Remember all the Obama "czars" he appointed?
Musk has top security clearance and founded Paypal with millions of personal and financial information. He is also the top in terms of organization of large organizations for efficiency.
If not him, then whom would you recommend for the job?
Musk is a 'special government employee' not an 'adviser'. And White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt's reply when asked about his background check and clearance was 'I don’t know about the security clearance, but I can check.' Weirdly enough, still waiting for a reply. Go figure.
*Sigh* Yes, ITS REALLY BAD SHIT. That doesn't make it a coup. WORDS HAVE MEANING. When you take something awful and try to make it sound worse by embellishment, you give EVERYONE a reason to tune out, which undermines EVERYTHING youre trying to do. THATS MY WHOLE POINT SHIT4BRAINS.
If you were as smart as you think you are you wouldn’t be calling the people who you want to read your content names. You would also pick your battles. Words ARE important and you wasted a lot of them on one word which critically unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Our two Presidents are lawless and making unprecedented motions which are unconstitutional and wildly dangerous the nation and the globe. It is not hyperbolic to call what has been going on a coup. Masterbatory ramblings on ‘why the dems suck’ is not helpful. You’re frustrated no one reads your content. Pick the audience you want to connect with & then learn how to connect with them.
They masterfully depicted factual representations of a coup and what has occurred. Bashing them for trying to clean your lenses of bias and tantrum like responses is comical...considering they may be sitting next to you on your side of the political spectrum. Read the room Woman!
This isn't a sudden, visible upheaval, but a slow, insidious dismantling of departments. While perhaps not a 'coup' in the traditional sense, the cumulative effect is a significant loss of institutional knowledge and capacity. So, regardless of the terminology, the result is the same as a coup: a significant loss of power and resources.
“A coup d’etat is essentially, an illegitimate overthrow of existing government structure. “
He’s literally breaking the law while breaking down the government structure. So YES a coup. No the president is not allowed to just decide on his own how federal money is spent and just stop all funding willy nilly and do massive damage in the process. And he’s most definitely not allowed to appoint some rando who doesn’t have security clearance and who has all kinds of personal agendas like cutting money from his competitors and allocating that money to his own businesses.
(1) Trump (along with his accomplices in his administration & in Congress) was constitutionally ineligible for further government office in the first place (14th Amendment, Section 3) by breaking his oath of office through his coup attempt in January 2021 & various other breaches that should've been but never were adjudicated, a huge error & betrayal by the Biden administration, Congress & US Supreme Court.
(2) Trump did not win the majority of votes cast even if you accept the corrupted election results, which I don't due to voter suppression by the millions targeting Democrats & minorities & vote manipulation in favor of Trump from electoral machinations by Trump partisans, including tech savvy billionaires highly invested in Trump reassuming the presidency.
Naw, Congress has oversight over the executive agencies. They are our proxies after all. If they, and by that extension we, are not allowed to provide oversight for a man who is unelected, unappointed, and not hired legally to do this "audit" then what else is it?
We already have two ways to audit the government: Inspector Generals and the Government Agency of Oversight.
What Elon is doing (outside of the constitution and unlawfully) is a Coup. It is not a military coup (yet) but it is circumventing the law of land and the constitutional checks and balances on purpose. What Trump has been trying to do by grabbing at the purse string of already appointed money by Congress (under their constitutionally appointed purview) is at the very least extreme and unprecedented overreach. At most part of the coup.
Your whole article is postulated off of a very narrow understanding of how our government is intended to work, and what a coup looks like.
So, not sure why you get so pissed about ‘the left’s’ semantics. How is it that middle America can’t understand it when a liberal says that ‘a coup’ is underway? They seem to have accepted all of the thousands of outright lies that Trump has spewed for years without much difficulty or discomfort. The right lives and grows off of all of the propaganda, lies, and omissions of news and information coming out of thousands of media outlets everyday.
What’s happening right now is unprecedented in what you somehow think you can describe as ordinary politics. What Trump is doing is nothing ordinary. Perhaps it would be more effective if you compared what Trump is doing to what Orbán has done in Hungary. Autocracy, monocracy is not an ordinary result of our ordinary politicos, but, apparently can arise out of those politics. That’s how Orban did it and how Trump and his Muskreants are seeking to effectively duplicate it.
This! I don’t understand why when words like “coup d’etat” or “insurrection” is too high brow for people to say. When did we stop prioritizing vocabulary to give more color to what we are experiencing? Blaming the messenger seems like the biggest waste of time when we should be encouraging each other to come together to organize. Weaponizing education and intelligence is my main gripe with Republicans - how did they control serfs and peasants throughout history? By giving them less education and it’s happening PARTICULARLY in your red states. Look at who invests in these folks (trump, the kirchners, musk) and tell me this is not a throw of state which is literally what coup d’etat stands for. We are watching pawns act out another country leader’s dreams, not the dreams of a democratic people. There is no representation of the people which is literally the definition of a coup in relation to democracy.
Everything they are doing is illegal and unconstitutional. That is LITERALLY a hostile takeover, aka a coup. Just because it doesn’t fit your narrow definition of “starting in the streets” doesn’t change that.
What’s more, the orange tyrant was NOT lawfully elected, they used massive voter suppression, election interference, and outright fraud.
“Literally” implies that a court, you know courts—they actually decide what is and is not “unconstitutional” in the US— has determined it is such. It doesn’t mean some ranting, raving lunatic spewing crap online thinks it is.
Haha, why do you think there have been so many injunctions while it's litigated? Why do you think they are trying to steamroll through those? Because it's blatantly obvious that they have no legal standing.
That's why, when pressed by Raskin on Musk's status as a federal employee, they now claim he's not in charge of DOGE at all. What a load of crap. Just as bad as what you're pushing. "purple" my ass. You're from the same cloth as Jill Stein.
I understand the point you’re trying to make here, and semantics and the way we use language does have to be strategic, but I need you to know that the President does not have the authority to allow Musk to do anything he is doing. DOGE is not a department of the government and as such at the moment does not legally exist. Musk is not a government employee and does not have the clearance to view the information he’s had his hands all over let alone do anything with it, hence why he’s being tied up in court and Trump is trying to dump him. They do not have the authority to do that, and yet they’re trying. Democratic lawmakers have the clearance to be in those buildings at any time they please, keeping them out is in fact a coup-like action. That is a fact. To act like this is not true is wrong and minimizing the concerns of people. And plenty of the people commenting are right, we shouldn’t have to police our words, and while I understand your point about language and semantics being important and words having meaning, this is not the way to sway people to agree with you or even see your point. We cannot live under a regime of policing our speech and especially not one self-imposed. They’re already trying to force one onto us, do not obey in advance. And always hope it doesn’t turn to necessity to talk around facts and words a group doesn’t like because it calls their behavior into the open.
Democratic lawmakers being locked out of a government building is not normal. Saying they ‘belong to a different branch’ doesn’t justify denying them access to the legislative process. This is a blatant suppression of opposition, a tactic historically used by authoritarian regimes.
2️⃣ You admit Musk is acting ‘under the authority of Trump’—that’s the problem. When private entities (media, tech, industry) align themselves with a single political movement, that’s not free enterprise. That’s state-controlled propaganda, a hallmark of autocratic takeovers.
3️⃣ Dismissing concerns by saying ‘this isn’t a coup’ is gaslighting. Nobody expects tanks in the streets overnight. Modern coups dismantle democracy from within—controlling institutions, restricting opposition, manipulating laws, and spreading propaganda until resistance is impossible.
4️⃣ ‘It just hasn’t happened yet.’ That’s an admission that it could. So at what point do you acknowledge it? When elections are openly rigged? When opposition leaders start ‘disappearing’? The fact that we’re even having this discussion means we’re already on the edge.
This isn’t crying wolf. This is recognizing the exact historical patterns that led to past authoritarian regimes. By the time people like you stop excusing it, it might be too late.
By the way, I think it’s very ironic that you’re asking someone if they took a fifth grade civics when they don’t even offer civics until middle school or high school.
Wagging your finger all over the place doesn’t get your point across, it’s just patronizing. Trump’s actions of attempting to override any restraints on his executive power is a constitutional crisis. Having a band of unelected people breach sensitive data under the guise of an unofficial agency not approved by Congress seems very much like an attempted coup, i.e. usurping power. Now is the time for unity, friend.
I’m normally with you, but you’re WAY off base here. WTF do you call Musk charging into Treasury and seizing control of the payments system?? It’s ignorant to pretend that a single mild memo represents the upper bound on how bad things are.
It's not a coup. Musk is operating with authority granted to him by Trump.
It stinks to high heaven, is corrupt as hell and no sane President would allow it, but it's NOT a coup.
The word has meaning. Coups aren't AUTHORIZED by those in charge. When people use the word to describe things like this, that level of hyperbole, most people think they sound unhinged and tune them out. That's how Trump won.
Trump had no right to delegate that "authority" in the first place, period. It's just a naked power grab.
This sort of seizing power centers is exactly what dictators do in coups. You say coups aren't "AUTHORIZED", and yet everything that happened in literally the most famous coup in history -- Hitler's Nazi takeover -- was far more constitutionally authorized than anything Trump is currently attempting. Their legislature actually voted to enable him! Hitler wasn't just claiming overly broad, vague authorities that he didn't have; he actually WAS granted them! Trump cannot remotely claim the same: There simply IS NO RIGHT for a President, let alone his delegate, to stop payments. It's not in the constitution, and it's in contravention of at least TWO major acts of Congress.
You can't make such expansive claims if you're ignorant of the relevant history, which you (and please, I don't mean this as rude as it probably comes across) genuinely appear to be, from my honest perspective -- I study this history shit for fun, I'm not just popping off. It'd be one thing if you were arguing that the average American _themselves_ is too ignorant to understand all this history, and that libs should thus avoid using overly-broad language *even if it's accurate*, because it risks confusing normies and turning them off of what's otherwise an eminently justified alarm about the unconstitutional bullshit Trump and Musk are trying to pull off.
But that's not the argument that you made, and I'm trying to operate in good faith here by taking you at your word, not putting words in your mouth.
Ok. That amounts to "an illegal act" that can be taken to court and rectified. You're equating "power grab you don't like" with a coup. Again, the word has meaning. And if you actually read my piece, you'd see I talk about all of this, including Hitler. I'm not ignorant of history. You're ignorant of basic vocabulary, and quite honestly, being hyperbolic...that's how Trump won to begin with. And no, the language of using the word "coup" here is not accurate
You're angry and you find Trump and Musks actions distasteful and wrong. Fine. You know what? I do too. But when you use words that don't apply, to everyone else you sound like a lunatic, and they won't listen to anything else you say. My eyes glazed over and stopped most of your senseless rant.
And one last thing. You don't know me. Calling me ignorant of history when I included the whole history you cite in the article, and claiming things are Unconstitutional to a lawyer like me whose, you know, studied and practiced in the law for 20 years, just shows I'm not the one who's ignorant.
I honestly stopped reading after I got to the Musk part, because it was so obviously wrong. I apologize for the insult; I was apparently wrong about your historical knowledge.
However, having read the entire article, I cannot for the everloving life of me see how you can understand all that fucking history and NOT see how what Musk is attempting is tantamount to a coup. It makes me seriously call your judgment into question. Centrism in the face of this nonsense is no virtue, and kowtowing to the idiot voters who glazed over after all the Hitler comparisons will not and CAN NOT stop Trump from doing the evil things he threatens to do.
I wish you the best, but you need to get your head out of the sand. Unsubscribing.
It's because you clearly have no fucking sense of what the word COUP means. Despite me literally spelling it out for you. In a historical context no less (which you claimed to know so much about). So you admit that you replied to a post you didnt even fully read, and have the gall to call me ignorant. It's that kind of mentality that propagates stupidity online. Be smarter.
Coups don't come from within. They aren't authorized. They are enacted by those outside of power against the establishment. You're applying it in the context of a guy you don't like doing shit you don't like. That's why you sound unhinged, hyperbolic and frankly stupid. You are angry at me because I AGREE WITH IT BEING wrong and offensive and shit I don't like but I choose to be CORRECT in how I describe things. Words have meaning, and when you call a horse a pig it just muddies the idea of what horses and pigs really are. This is why the Dems have a "Boy who cried wolf" problem. They shout "Coup! Coup! Coup!" when there isn't one, then later on something REALLY is a coup and they already lost all credibility. Yeah, Trump scares the crap out of me of what he has the capacity to do, but if you cry wolf now over this, nobody will listen when it really does come.
You think Im trying to be centrist because Im not going along with liberal hysteria and hyperbole. Fine. I call it being objective and intelligent, and not roiled by outrage. Liberal hysteria is how Trump won. I did more to convince people to vote for Democrats than any of those with their hair on fire shouting at windmills, who only talked to others who were already voting Democrat. You seem to want to go that route. Best of luck to you. Enjoy staying in the silo and getting angrier and angrier amongst the nonsensical.
It is a unique situation. He is now following the rules. What he is doing is not authorized by those who have authority to do it. A pedantic might be right this is not technically a coup, but this in effect working the same way. They are taking over the government illegally.
Coup is a perfectly reasonable analogy to use about what is going on. It is an illegal takeover of government. That the ones doing it holds the executive branch does not make it any less illegal.
That sort of language is one of the reasons we lost and are now in this appalling mess to begin with. I thought your piece was well-written and cogent.
Trump is not “duly executing” the laws made by Congress. He is attempting to shutter Congressionally-created agencies and impound funds. Extra-constitutional acts by.a President are in no way an “actual consequence” of an election. They are illegal and it’s an attempted autogolpe.
You really ran on the minimal civics we took. Do more research instead of relying on outdated and censored lessons we were taught you’re embarrassing yourself 😂. That’s all.
If they feel they are gaslighted, they didn't really believe in what they thought was reality, therefore job well done to show truth, not their truth....but truth.
So now I'm a fascist? Because I don't agree to the hyperbolic extent you do? THis is why the Democratic brand and polling is in the toilet right now-- NOBODY LIKES LIBERALS BECAUSE OF WHAT YOU ARE CURRENTLY DOING HERE.
Just a taste from my piece today: "Genuinely, I want to be on your side. I agree with a lot of things you believe in, and that the country needs to go in that direction. I just wish you’d make it a helluva lot easier to be on your side, because frankly, it’s much easier to write this piece describing why it’s so easy to hate you and ripping you guys to shreds than it is to be your ally."
When you call someone a fascist....you make it sound like you know what a fascist is while being said fascist...again comical for all to see. Thank you.
Trump granting him "authority" doesn't make it legitimate because it is, in fact illegal. Telling people to not call it a coup is a bit pedantic. At the very least, it is an illegal takeover of our treasury and OPM systems and we shouldn't be showing these clowns any quarter. Part of the definition is an alteration of an existing government by a small group of people. Our existing government includes congress, and it very clearly appears that Musk is attempting to alter our government by bypassing congress' authority with the help of his small group of incel nerds. It is unprecedented, and mincing words is counterproductive.
And as if to underscore the point of the last commentator, who admitted he didn't read the whole piece, completely flew off the handle in an unhinged rant, and had the audacity to call me ignorant, I am just going to reiterate the LAST THREE PARAGRAPHS OF THE PIECE HERE:
"So before the more liberal readers of this substack go all hyperbolic in using the “c” word here, think again. It makes you sound crazy. It makes you sound outrageous and unhinged. This is the whole reason Trump won in the first place. Pick and choose your words (and your battles) more carefully.
Complain all you want about what they are doing. Make a point to demonstrate how it is seriously damaging standing in the US and the World. Describe in detail the consequences and damage it is causing to the American voter, economy and way of life. My congressman referred to Musk’s Treasury raid as “…abusing Americans most confidential and personal financial information…a breach of our privacy rights.” which I completely agree with.
Oh! So police our words…ok Orwell. That should work…the “left” sound unhinged for calling Nazis Nazis…. I’m thinking you’re well protected from the fall…that’s why you continue to explain to the “left” that their language makes them unhinged but the admin…totally hinged. This tracks.
First, read Orwell's Politics and the English Language, particularly the part where he talks about “Fascist” being leveled so casually and often that it no longer had meaning. That's what the “coup” talk has become.
Second, ask yourself if you would go up to someone you don't know on the street and scream at them the same way you just did to me, and whether that wouldn't seem unhinged. Yes, Trump and Musk and others are acting horribly, irresponsibly and dangerously. I'm not on their side. But when people like you feel necessary to constantly scream and protest every minor item TO PEOPLE ON YOUR SIDE who are trying to expand the voting base (because, to win next time youre going to need some people who voted for Trump in 2024), it makes it hard to be an ally.
Rereading my comment…not even an exclamation point. I really think giving up and letting you all sort it out…or don’t…I’m tired of caring and donating money only to be told by someone supposedly on the same side…
I think I’d rather move out of the country. A ridiculous bunch of people “unhinged” by words color and fabric.
Every minor thing? Perhaps this is a matter of what you think is minor. Erasing Trans history is a pretty bold move for a lot of people I know… I guess you want to police the language and how it’s used…you declare I’m yelling and unhinged because I find major issues where you see minor.
Every minor thing? Perhaps this is a matter of what you think is minor. Erasing Trans history is a pretty bold move for a lot of people I know… I guess you want to police the language and how it’s used…you declare I’m yelling and unhinged because I find major issues where you see minor.
Trump unconstitutionally came back to power due to many institutional failures involving all 3 branches of government, some deliberately illegally abetting Trump's return to power, & some simply neglecting to enforce the Constitution & rule of law, which amounts to dereliction of duty & betrayal of trust, which includes Democrats as well as Republicans. Trump should never have been allowed to run, the suspicious irregularities in the election results & events surrounding the election should've been thoroughly investigated & forensically audited & never been certified, but Democrats in Congress prioritized a smooth & cordial transition of power over saving the country from the fascism they warned the country about.
Lol I stopped at the photos of violence being used as the sole example of a coup. This shows that you're just LARPing as an intellectual because you happen to be somebody with very strong opinions ("These opinions must be worth listening to if I feel so strongly about them!")
Not every coup happens violently: the term for what's happening is an Autogolpe, and has happened plenty of times in societies with the rule of law.
Coups don't necessarily happen right way. Trump and the Republicans already tried a violent coup in 2021 (Jan 6 and Trump's falsified slate of electors). Now that method has failed, they are slowly dismantling the checks on their power, both legally and illegally.
Why else would Trump want a federal workforce loyal to him and only him? Because those workers are less likely to disobey illegal or immoral orders.
Between this and Elon strong-arming the budget without congressional approval, and Elon (Trump's biggest donor by far $$) taking over the treasury department and installing a private server with no oversight, I'm not sure how anybody can think it's not an executive branch take-over (like a coup, if you will.)
Whether you think that takeover is good or not is where the parties lie now, and unfortunately milquetoast centrist whining from midwits like yourself is not helpful in any capacity.
I love it when I get criticisms like this from people who think they're being smart but actually just demonstrate stupidity. So I'll make it very simple for you.
1. Coups ALWAYS come from people who don't have power. Trump currently has it. He's free to delegate it to Elon the same way any President would to a policy czar. Republicans aren't stopping him. I've never once heard of a coup coming from someone fighting against themselves.
2. There's RECOURSE if it is illegal. People don't like what's happening-- OK, you can make your case about it in Court. A court can find it illegal and Trump will have to stop. Cases are already proceeding through the normal avenues. If it were a coup, it wouldn't get this far.
3. The people who are screaming at the top of their lungs how this is a coup are LIBERALS, who don't have ANY power. None. Zip. Zero. They are in the minority, lost the White House convincingly, and seem to have this idea that power is obtained by the people who yell the loudest. In fact, they have absolutely no legitimate way within current government to stop any of what is going on, except through the Courts.
4. Trump could fire Elon tomorrow. Elon wouldn't have any access at all. Coups don't work that way-- you can't RETRACT power if you are deposed by a coup.
Go back to high school civics dipshit. You don't know what you are talking about.
Almost none of this is true, what are you talking about? Was Jan 6th and the false electors not a coup attempt because Trump was president at the time? Is it not concerning that the administration is purging everyone that would stand in the way of their illegal activities? Or how we have a private citizen who bribed his way into controlling the treasury without the legally necessary authorization?
If you want to call setting this the stage for a coup, whatever, you can be semantical if you want, but otherwise your argument boils down to "Only scream when it's too late to do anything about it, because you seem totally childish otherwise, unlike me, a representative of the true way forward."
You're an arrogant blow-hard whose substack will fail because you offer no interesting thoughts other than spiteful contrarianism.
Jan 6th was Dem pawns as a ruse of Trump's following....it was literally the home team trashing their own field....(Realizing this is substance, this audience may miss the sports reference - think of your dog eating your own furniture or going to the bathroom inside your own home)
But Musk isn’t supposed to have power. That is where the coup is coming from. Check out the Butterfly Revolution, Curtis Yarvin and the Neo-Reactionary Coup. This is a coup.
Also, there is such a thing as an auto-coup in which someone in power takes more power for themselves.
You said: "A court can find it illegal and Trump will have to stop". But say he doesn't stop, and nobody makes him because he's their boss. This is sadly plausible. What use will this scolding then have been?
I'll add. Before you comment about shit, you need to read everything. Admitting to not doing that, and then commenting about all loads of bullshit, well, that just demonstrates and admits ignorance.
If i read an article that claims liberals are crying wolf about racism in society, and the first argument of the article is a photo of a black guy getting curbstomped on the sidewalk with the caption "THIS is what racism actually is, not what liberals are crying about", I'm going to stop reading, because it demonstrates a simpleton's view of racism.
Ahh Mr. Chamberlain, you’ve rose from the dead! This view is as hollow as it is dangerous. Any forced collapse of a system of government would harken criticism. The word or terminology is not important. The transfer of wealth and control over the populace is what’s important. Take it at a euphemism then when I say: It’s a fucking Nazi coup…
When you break a long list of laws and refuse to enforce laws to implement a political ideology, it is a coup. Some apologist, retard level commentary but that’s what folks like you are all about. Dude, you are a goose stepper with zero redeeming qualities
You're the one trolling comment boards calling people you don't know Nazis and r--s. (unlike you, I don't use that word). I mean, if you had read ANY of the posts I put up the last two years you'd realize how stupid you sound right now.
Not to mention incorrect. So let me help you out. Here is how Websters describes a coup: "a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics and especially the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group." Nothing in your definition conforms to that; you just like SAYING that because it makes it SOUND worse. What I still don't get is why liberals are spending so much energy pushing that idea and when confronted by people on your side who want you reel in the crazy, you attack THEM. To that end, what Musk and Trump are doing IS ALREADY BAD, and requires no embellishment. Yet, calling something by what it is, using accurate language to describe things IS WHAT OFFENDS YOU? And THAT is the whole point of the article.
How dare you lecture people about the careful use of words while you twist and wind your way into legitimizing what is happening. Which is the clear and subversive buy out of democratic institutions by billionaires.
Don't be fucking stupid. Don't lecture people on how careful they should be with their words while they're terrified that the very bedrock of this nation crumbles.
Pick something to actually believe in and say it with your fucking chest. God this is so spinless
Whatever you want to call it, or demand it not be called, it's coming. This right here is where your naivete shows.... "Say what you will about Republicans, but ALL americans take pride in elections and their ability to change the course of political life if they get upset. If Trump actually tried to follow through on it, most Senators and Reps would impeach him out of fear of their own constituents. The only way this results in a coup is if Senators and Reps, outside of the legitimate authority granted to them by their constituents, supported Trump’s takeover of the government and rubber stamped it, or outright abolished Congress. That ain’t happening. "
It's happening in front of our faces. Everything Musk is doing, everything Trump is ordering, is creating chaos and inviting public protests so we're prepped for when Trump decides to declare martial law/national emergency right before the next election. The Senate is supporting "Trump’s takeover of the government and rubber stamp(ing) it" by confirming his slate of psychos for his cabinet.
They are not going to make the same mistakes they made during his first term.
I read the entire article. While I agree with some points, I do not agree with a lot of your other points. And to focus on semantics as what you seem to see as an important issue is just plain ridiculous in the scheme of the destruction of our government, the lawbreaking, going against the Constitution, the lies, the theft of taxpayer money, the hardships caused to the poor & the needy, putting American lives at risk intentionally, the threats - the list is miles long. So you take issue with the word “coup”?!! Buh bye!!
« He won an outright majority of the vote as well, so there can be no question about a mandate. «
This is factually incorrect. He received LESS than 50 % of the vote, one of the lowest on record, and narrowly beat his opponent by one of the slimmest margins in American history. When less than half of voters supported him, no reasonable person can consider that a mandate.
Doubtful purple will agree with your factual statement cuz he’s not really purple. All one has to do is a simple Google to see that he did not win the mAJORITY of the votes
Not sure if you can see the shitheads I blocked or not. The number of idiots who chose to comment without reading the article yesterday were numerous, and their certainty while being wrong was dialed up to 11.
When an unelected non-government businessman and his non-security checked minions screw around with a citizens privacy, it sure seem like a coup to me! I had background checks and a lie detector test as a civilian county employee…give me a break
So..Democratic lawmakers being locked out of a government building...is NOT a coup?
Get your head out of the sand
Yeah, its not. Democratic lawmakers belong to a different branch of government. Everything Musk is doing is being done with the authority of President Trump (who is repugnant and vile and stands for everything I oppose) who as the head of the executive branch has control of the individual agencies. Or did you not take 5th grade Civics?
Calling anything you don't like "a coup" devalues the word and when REALLY bad shit happens (which is entirely possible, it just hasn't happened yet) nobody will listen to you because you cried wolf too many times.
Read the article. I can already tell you didn't and instead are buying into the hysteria that usually envelopes liberals.
So is there a new branch of government that we don’t know about called Elon Musk? Elon Musk has absolutely no authority to do what he is doing. Because Trump “gave him that authority “ is a straw man. Trump does not by any constitutional description have the authority to do any of this. Call it whatever you like, it is an unconstitutional power grab that places an unelected private citizen in control of a large piece of the federal government. I’ll choose to call it a coup.
This is ignorance 101. The majority of hires and appointees to a presidential administration are non-elected and not approved by the senate. The President can select advisors. Remember all the Obama "czars" he appointed?
Musk has top security clearance and founded Paypal with millions of personal and financial information. He is also the top in terms of organization of large organizations for efficiency.
If not him, then whom would you recommend for the job?
only congress has the power to establish and dismantle agencies. what Elon is doing is illegal
This is ignorance 102.
Musk is a 'special government employee' not an 'adviser'. And White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt's reply when asked about his background check and clearance was 'I don’t know about the security clearance, but I can check.' Weirdly enough, still waiting for a reply. Go figure.
If you don't see that THIS IS REALLY BAD SHIT then...
I ain't got nothing for ya
*Sigh* Yes, ITS REALLY BAD SHIT. That doesn't make it a coup. WORDS HAVE MEANING. When you take something awful and try to make it sound worse by embellishment, you give EVERYONE a reason to tune out, which undermines EVERYTHING youre trying to do. THATS MY WHOLE POINT SHIT4BRAINS.
If you were as smart as you think you are you wouldn’t be calling the people who you want to read your content names. You would also pick your battles. Words ARE important and you wasted a lot of them on one word which critically unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Our two Presidents are lawless and making unprecedented motions which are unconstitutional and wildly dangerous the nation and the globe. It is not hyperbolic to call what has been going on a coup. Masterbatory ramblings on ‘why the dems suck’ is not helpful. You’re frustrated no one reads your content. Pick the audience you want to connect with & then learn how to connect with them.
You're welcome to ignore me if you disgree but chose to whine instead. Says a lot.
They masterfully depicted factual representations of a coup and what has occurred. Bashing them for trying to clean your lenses of bias and tantrum like responses is comical...considering they may be sitting next to you on your side of the political spectrum. Read the room Woman!
This isn't a sudden, visible upheaval, but a slow, insidious dismantling of departments. While perhaps not a 'coup' in the traditional sense, the cumulative effect is a significant loss of institutional knowledge and capacity. So, regardless of the terminology, the result is the same as a coup: a significant loss of power and resources.
“A coup d’etat is essentially, an illegitimate overthrow of existing government structure. “
He’s literally breaking the law while breaking down the government structure. So YES a coup. No the president is not allowed to just decide on his own how federal money is spent and just stop all funding willy nilly and do massive damage in the process. And he’s most definitely not allowed to appoint some rando who doesn’t have security clearance and who has all kinds of personal agendas like cutting money from his competitors and allocating that money to his own businesses.
A couple errors or omissions in your essay:
(1) Trump (along with his accomplices in his administration & in Congress) was constitutionally ineligible for further government office in the first place (14th Amendment, Section 3) by breaking his oath of office through his coup attempt in January 2021 & various other breaches that should've been but never were adjudicated, a huge error & betrayal by the Biden administration, Congress & US Supreme Court.
(2) Trump did not win the majority of votes cast even if you accept the corrupted election results, which I don't due to voter suppression by the millions targeting Democrats & minorities & vote manipulation in favor of Trump from electoral machinations by Trump partisans, including tech savvy billionaires highly invested in Trump reassuming the presidency.
It's ok, clearly you have nothing period. Ignoring the logical stance someone on your side wrote about is pretty hilarious.
Naw, Congress has oversight over the executive agencies. They are our proxies after all. If they, and by that extension we, are not allowed to provide oversight for a man who is unelected, unappointed, and not hired legally to do this "audit" then what else is it?
We already have two ways to audit the government: Inspector Generals and the Government Agency of Oversight.
What Elon is doing (outside of the constitution and unlawfully) is a Coup. It is not a military coup (yet) but it is circumventing the law of land and the constitutional checks and balances on purpose. What Trump has been trying to do by grabbing at the purse string of already appointed money by Congress (under their constitutionally appointed purview) is at the very least extreme and unprecedented overreach. At most part of the coup.
Your whole article is postulated off of a very narrow understanding of how our government is intended to work, and what a coup looks like.
You don’t even know what a coup is or the different versions and you admitted this as much in this comment. Thank you for doing the work for me.
Musk wasn't confirmed by Congress.
You're not arguing it isn't a coup. You're arguing that you're a supporter of the coup.
So, not sure why you get so pissed about ‘the left’s’ semantics. How is it that middle America can’t understand it when a liberal says that ‘a coup’ is underway? They seem to have accepted all of the thousands of outright lies that Trump has spewed for years without much difficulty or discomfort. The right lives and grows off of all of the propaganda, lies, and omissions of news and information coming out of thousands of media outlets everyday.
What’s happening right now is unprecedented in what you somehow think you can describe as ordinary politics. What Trump is doing is nothing ordinary. Perhaps it would be more effective if you compared what Trump is doing to what Orbán has done in Hungary. Autocracy, monocracy is not an ordinary result of our ordinary politicos, but, apparently can arise out of those politics. That’s how Orban did it and how Trump and his Muskreants are seeking to effectively duplicate it.
This! I don’t understand why when words like “coup d’etat” or “insurrection” is too high brow for people to say. When did we stop prioritizing vocabulary to give more color to what we are experiencing? Blaming the messenger seems like the biggest waste of time when we should be encouraging each other to come together to organize. Weaponizing education and intelligence is my main gripe with Republicans - how did they control serfs and peasants throughout history? By giving them less education and it’s happening PARTICULARLY in your red states. Look at who invests in these folks (trump, the kirchners, musk) and tell me this is not a throw of state which is literally what coup d’etat stands for. We are watching pawns act out another country leader’s dreams, not the dreams of a democratic people. There is no representation of the people which is literally the definition of a coup in relation to democracy.
Everything they are doing is illegal and unconstitutional. That is LITERALLY a hostile takeover, aka a coup. Just because it doesn’t fit your narrow definition of “starting in the streets” doesn’t change that.
What’s more, the orange tyrant was NOT lawfully elected, they used massive voter suppression, election interference, and outright fraud.
“Literally” implies that a court, you know courts—they actually decide what is and is not “unconstitutional” in the US— has determined it is such. It doesn’t mean some ranting, raving lunatic spewing crap online thinks it is.
Haha, why do you think there have been so many injunctions while it's litigated? Why do you think they are trying to steamroll through those? Because it's blatantly obvious that they have no legal standing.
That's why, when pressed by Raskin on Musk's status as a federal employee, they now claim he's not in charge of DOGE at all. What a load of crap. Just as bad as what you're pushing. "purple" my ass. You're from the same cloth as Jill Stein.
I understand the point you’re trying to make here, and semantics and the way we use language does have to be strategic, but I need you to know that the President does not have the authority to allow Musk to do anything he is doing. DOGE is not a department of the government and as such at the moment does not legally exist. Musk is not a government employee and does not have the clearance to view the information he’s had his hands all over let alone do anything with it, hence why he’s being tied up in court and Trump is trying to dump him. They do not have the authority to do that, and yet they’re trying. Democratic lawmakers have the clearance to be in those buildings at any time they please, keeping them out is in fact a coup-like action. That is a fact. To act like this is not true is wrong and minimizing the concerns of people. And plenty of the people commenting are right, we shouldn’t have to police our words, and while I understand your point about language and semantics being important and words having meaning, this is not the way to sway people to agree with you or even see your point. We cannot live under a regime of policing our speech and especially not one self-imposed. They’re already trying to force one onto us, do not obey in advance. And always hope it doesn’t turn to necessity to talk around facts and words a group doesn’t like because it calls their behavior into the open.
Democratic lawmakers being locked out of a government building is not normal. Saying they ‘belong to a different branch’ doesn’t justify denying them access to the legislative process. This is a blatant suppression of opposition, a tactic historically used by authoritarian regimes.
2️⃣ You admit Musk is acting ‘under the authority of Trump’—that’s the problem. When private entities (media, tech, industry) align themselves with a single political movement, that’s not free enterprise. That’s state-controlled propaganda, a hallmark of autocratic takeovers.
3️⃣ Dismissing concerns by saying ‘this isn’t a coup’ is gaslighting. Nobody expects tanks in the streets overnight. Modern coups dismantle democracy from within—controlling institutions, restricting opposition, manipulating laws, and spreading propaganda until resistance is impossible.
4️⃣ ‘It just hasn’t happened yet.’ That’s an admission that it could. So at what point do you acknowledge it? When elections are openly rigged? When opposition leaders start ‘disappearing’? The fact that we’re even having this discussion means we’re already on the edge.
This isn’t crying wolf. This is recognizing the exact historical patterns that led to past authoritarian regimes. By the time people like you stop excusing it, it might be too late.
By the way, I think it’s very ironic that you’re asking someone if they took a fifth grade civics when they don’t even offer civics until middle school or high school.
Wagging your finger all over the place doesn’t get your point across, it’s just patronizing. Trump’s actions of attempting to override any restraints on his executive power is a constitutional crisis. Having a band of unelected people breach sensitive data under the guise of an unofficial agency not approved by Congress seems very much like an attempted coup, i.e. usurping power. Now is the time for unity, friend.
The power of purse is not for the executive to delegate.
He acts like there is no such thing as a Self Coup or an Auto Coup.
I’m normally with you, but you’re WAY off base here. WTF do you call Musk charging into Treasury and seizing control of the payments system?? It’s ignorant to pretend that a single mild memo represents the upper bound on how bad things are.
It's not a coup. Musk is operating with authority granted to him by Trump.
It stinks to high heaven, is corrupt as hell and no sane President would allow it, but it's NOT a coup.
The word has meaning. Coups aren't AUTHORIZED by those in charge. When people use the word to describe things like this, that level of hyperbole, most people think they sound unhinged and tune them out. That's how Trump won.
Trump had no right to delegate that "authority" in the first place, period. It's just a naked power grab.
This sort of seizing power centers is exactly what dictators do in coups. You say coups aren't "AUTHORIZED", and yet everything that happened in literally the most famous coup in history -- Hitler's Nazi takeover -- was far more constitutionally authorized than anything Trump is currently attempting. Their legislature actually voted to enable him! Hitler wasn't just claiming overly broad, vague authorities that he didn't have; he actually WAS granted them! Trump cannot remotely claim the same: There simply IS NO RIGHT for a President, let alone his delegate, to stop payments. It's not in the constitution, and it's in contravention of at least TWO major acts of Congress.
You can't make such expansive claims if you're ignorant of the relevant history, which you (and please, I don't mean this as rude as it probably comes across) genuinely appear to be, from my honest perspective -- I study this history shit for fun, I'm not just popping off. It'd be one thing if you were arguing that the average American _themselves_ is too ignorant to understand all this history, and that libs should thus avoid using overly-broad language *even if it's accurate*, because it risks confusing normies and turning them off of what's otherwise an eminently justified alarm about the unconstitutional bullshit Trump and Musk are trying to pull off.
But that's not the argument that you made, and I'm trying to operate in good faith here by taking you at your word, not putting words in your mouth.
Ok. That amounts to "an illegal act" that can be taken to court and rectified. You're equating "power grab you don't like" with a coup. Again, the word has meaning. And if you actually read my piece, you'd see I talk about all of this, including Hitler. I'm not ignorant of history. You're ignorant of basic vocabulary, and quite honestly, being hyperbolic...that's how Trump won to begin with. And no, the language of using the word "coup" here is not accurate
You're angry and you find Trump and Musks actions distasteful and wrong. Fine. You know what? I do too. But when you use words that don't apply, to everyone else you sound like a lunatic, and they won't listen to anything else you say. My eyes glazed over and stopped most of your senseless rant.
And one last thing. You don't know me. Calling me ignorant of history when I included the whole history you cite in the article, and claiming things are Unconstitutional to a lawyer like me whose, you know, studied and practiced in the law for 20 years, just shows I'm not the one who's ignorant.
I honestly stopped reading after I got to the Musk part, because it was so obviously wrong. I apologize for the insult; I was apparently wrong about your historical knowledge.
However, having read the entire article, I cannot for the everloving life of me see how you can understand all that fucking history and NOT see how what Musk is attempting is tantamount to a coup. It makes me seriously call your judgment into question. Centrism in the face of this nonsense is no virtue, and kowtowing to the idiot voters who glazed over after all the Hitler comparisons will not and CAN NOT stop Trump from doing the evil things he threatens to do.
I wish you the best, but you need to get your head out of the sand. Unsubscribing.
It's because you clearly have no fucking sense of what the word COUP means. Despite me literally spelling it out for you. In a historical context no less (which you claimed to know so much about). So you admit that you replied to a post you didnt even fully read, and have the gall to call me ignorant. It's that kind of mentality that propagates stupidity online. Be smarter.
Coups don't come from within. They aren't authorized. They are enacted by those outside of power against the establishment. You're applying it in the context of a guy you don't like doing shit you don't like. That's why you sound unhinged, hyperbolic and frankly stupid. You are angry at me because I AGREE WITH IT BEING wrong and offensive and shit I don't like but I choose to be CORRECT in how I describe things. Words have meaning, and when you call a horse a pig it just muddies the idea of what horses and pigs really are. This is why the Dems have a "Boy who cried wolf" problem. They shout "Coup! Coup! Coup!" when there isn't one, then later on something REALLY is a coup and they already lost all credibility. Yeah, Trump scares the crap out of me of what he has the capacity to do, but if you cry wolf now over this, nobody will listen when it really does come.
You think Im trying to be centrist because Im not going along with liberal hysteria and hyperbole. Fine. I call it being objective and intelligent, and not roiled by outrage. Liberal hysteria is how Trump won. I did more to convince people to vote for Democrats than any of those with their hair on fire shouting at windmills, who only talked to others who were already voting Democrat. You seem to want to go that route. Best of luck to you. Enjoy staying in the silo and getting angrier and angrier amongst the nonsensical.
It is a unique situation. He is now following the rules. What he is doing is not authorized by those who have authority to do it. A pedantic might be right this is not technically a coup, but this in effect working the same way. They are taking over the government illegally.
Coup is a perfectly reasonable analogy to use about what is going on. It is an illegal takeover of government. That the ones doing it holds the executive branch does not make it any less illegal.
That sort of language is one of the reasons we lost and are now in this appalling mess to begin with. I thought your piece was well-written and cogent.
Trump is not “duly executing” the laws made by Congress. He is attempting to shutter Congressionally-created agencies and impound funds. Extra-constitutional acts by.a President are in no way an “actual consequence” of an election. They are illegal and it’s an attempted autogolpe.
You really ran on the minimal civics we took. Do more research instead of relying on outdated and censored lessons we were taught you’re embarrassing yourself 😂. That’s all.
Fuck off incel.
Incel is the ones who dare to touch you. Standards don’t exist there. I have standards.
This article is gaslighting the American people.
It's amazing how quick liberals are to call factual things they disagree with as gaslighted. That's how far off you guys are.
You need to read my post from today, “Dear Liberals, There's No Need To Embellish.”
If they feel they are gaslighted, they didn't really believe in what they thought was reality, therefore job well done to show truth, not their truth....but truth.
Fascist rhetoric doesn’t work. FYI.
So now I'm a fascist? Because I don't agree to the hyperbolic extent you do? THis is why the Democratic brand and polling is in the toilet right now-- NOBODY LIKES LIBERALS BECAUSE OF WHAT YOU ARE CURRENTLY DOING HERE.
Just a taste from my piece today: "Genuinely, I want to be on your side. I agree with a lot of things you believe in, and that the country needs to go in that direction. I just wish you’d make it a helluva lot easier to be on your side, because frankly, it’s much easier to write this piece describing why it’s so easy to hate you and ripping you guys to shreds than it is to be your ally."
Btw, I’m not a liberal. You are WAY behind in being able to pick out a fascist.
Read anything about 1933 Germany and that might help you.
This isn’t about right or left but about democracy, ya know, our constitution.
When you call someone a fascist....you make it sound like you know what a fascist is while being said fascist...again comical for all to see. Thank you.
Yessss
Trump granting him "authority" doesn't make it legitimate because it is, in fact illegal. Telling people to not call it a coup is a bit pedantic. At the very least, it is an illegal takeover of our treasury and OPM systems and we shouldn't be showing these clowns any quarter. Part of the definition is an alteration of an existing government by a small group of people. Our existing government includes congress, and it very clearly appears that Musk is attempting to alter our government by bypassing congress' authority with the help of his small group of incel nerds. It is unprecedented, and mincing words is counterproductive.
And as if to underscore the point of the last commentator, who admitted he didn't read the whole piece, completely flew off the handle in an unhinged rant, and had the audacity to call me ignorant, I am just going to reiterate the LAST THREE PARAGRAPHS OF THE PIECE HERE:
"So before the more liberal readers of this substack go all hyperbolic in using the “c” word here, think again. It makes you sound crazy. It makes you sound outrageous and unhinged. This is the whole reason Trump won in the first place. Pick and choose your words (and your battles) more carefully.
Complain all you want about what they are doing. Make a point to demonstrate how it is seriously damaging standing in the US and the World. Describe in detail the consequences and damage it is causing to the American voter, economy and way of life. My congressman referred to Musk’s Treasury raid as “…abusing Americans most confidential and personal financial information…a breach of our privacy rights.” which I completely agree with.
Just don’t call it a coup."
Don't look now, but there's shit running out of your ears.
Oh! So police our words…ok Orwell. That should work…the “left” sound unhinged for calling Nazis Nazis…. I’m thinking you’re well protected from the fall…that’s why you continue to explain to the “left” that their language makes them unhinged but the admin…totally hinged. This tracks.
First, read Orwell's Politics and the English Language, particularly the part where he talks about “Fascist” being leveled so casually and often that it no longer had meaning. That's what the “coup” talk has become.
Second, ask yourself if you would go up to someone you don't know on the street and scream at them the same way you just did to me, and whether that wouldn't seem unhinged. Yes, Trump and Musk and others are acting horribly, irresponsibly and dangerously. I'm not on their side. But when people like you feel necessary to constantly scream and protest every minor item TO PEOPLE ON YOUR SIDE who are trying to expand the voting base (because, to win next time youre going to need some people who voted for Trump in 2024), it makes it hard to be an ally.
Rereading my comment…not even an exclamation point. I really think giving up and letting you all sort it out…or don’t…I’m tired of caring and donating money only to be told by someone supposedly on the same side…
I think I’d rather move out of the country. A ridiculous bunch of people “unhinged” by words color and fabric.
Best of luck
I didn’t scream or yell.
Were there all caps?
Every minor thing? Perhaps this is a matter of what you think is minor. Erasing Trans history is a pretty bold move for a lot of people I know… I guess you want to police the language and how it’s used…you declare I’m yelling and unhinged because I find major issues where you see minor.
I didn’t scream or yell.
Were there all caps?
Every minor thing? Perhaps this is a matter of what you think is minor. Erasing Trans history is a pretty bold move for a lot of people I know… I guess you want to police the language and how it’s used…you declare I’m yelling and unhinged because I find major issues where you see minor.
It’s not a coup bc Trump’s election was certified. Trump is a traitor to the US Constitution.
Trump unconstitutionally came back to power due to many institutional failures involving all 3 branches of government, some deliberately illegally abetting Trump's return to power, & some simply neglecting to enforce the Constitution & rule of law, which amounts to dereliction of duty & betrayal of trust, which includes Democrats as well as Republicans. Trump should never have been allowed to run, the suspicious irregularities in the election results & events surrounding the election should've been thoroughly investigated & forensically audited & never been certified, but Democrats in Congress prioritized a smooth & cordial transition of power over saving the country from the fascism they warned the country about.
coup: a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics and especially the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group.
A spade is a spade is a spade ♠️
Lol I stopped at the photos of violence being used as the sole example of a coup. This shows that you're just LARPing as an intellectual because you happen to be somebody with very strong opinions ("These opinions must be worth listening to if I feel so strongly about them!")
Not every coup happens violently: the term for what's happening is an Autogolpe, and has happened plenty of times in societies with the rule of law.
Coups don't necessarily happen right way. Trump and the Republicans already tried a violent coup in 2021 (Jan 6 and Trump's falsified slate of electors). Now that method has failed, they are slowly dismantling the checks on their power, both legally and illegally.
Why else would Trump want a federal workforce loyal to him and only him? Because those workers are less likely to disobey illegal or immoral orders.
Between this and Elon strong-arming the budget without congressional approval, and Elon (Trump's biggest donor by far $$) taking over the treasury department and installing a private server with no oversight, I'm not sure how anybody can think it's not an executive branch take-over (like a coup, if you will.)
Whether you think that takeover is good or not is where the parties lie now, and unfortunately milquetoast centrist whining from midwits like yourself is not helpful in any capacity.
I love it when I get criticisms like this from people who think they're being smart but actually just demonstrate stupidity. So I'll make it very simple for you.
1. Coups ALWAYS come from people who don't have power. Trump currently has it. He's free to delegate it to Elon the same way any President would to a policy czar. Republicans aren't stopping him. I've never once heard of a coup coming from someone fighting against themselves.
2. There's RECOURSE if it is illegal. People don't like what's happening-- OK, you can make your case about it in Court. A court can find it illegal and Trump will have to stop. Cases are already proceeding through the normal avenues. If it were a coup, it wouldn't get this far.
3. The people who are screaming at the top of their lungs how this is a coup are LIBERALS, who don't have ANY power. None. Zip. Zero. They are in the minority, lost the White House convincingly, and seem to have this idea that power is obtained by the people who yell the loudest. In fact, they have absolutely no legitimate way within current government to stop any of what is going on, except through the Courts.
4. Trump could fire Elon tomorrow. Elon wouldn't have any access at all. Coups don't work that way-- you can't RETRACT power if you are deposed by a coup.
Go back to high school civics dipshit. You don't know what you are talking about.
Almost none of this is true, what are you talking about? Was Jan 6th and the false electors not a coup attempt because Trump was president at the time? Is it not concerning that the administration is purging everyone that would stand in the way of their illegal activities? Or how we have a private citizen who bribed his way into controlling the treasury without the legally necessary authorization?
If you want to call setting this the stage for a coup, whatever, you can be semantical if you want, but otherwise your argument boils down to "Only scream when it's too late to do anything about it, because you seem totally childish otherwise, unlike me, a representative of the true way forward."
You're an arrogant blow-hard whose substack will fail because you offer no interesting thoughts other than spiteful contrarianism.
Jan 6th was Dem pawns as a ruse of Trump's following....it was literally the home team trashing their own field....(Realizing this is substance, this audience may miss the sports reference - think of your dog eating your own furniture or going to the bathroom inside your own home)
A coup perpetrated by an originally-legitimate leader, to expand or extend his power illegitimately, is a "self-coup," or "autogolpe" in Spanish.
https://open.substack.com/pub/paulkrugman/p/autogolpe
But Musk isn’t supposed to have power. That is where the coup is coming from. Check out the Butterfly Revolution, Curtis Yarvin and the Neo-Reactionary Coup. This is a coup.
Also, there is such a thing as an auto-coup in which someone in power takes more power for themselves.
You said: "A court can find it illegal and Trump will have to stop". But say he doesn't stop, and nobody makes him because he's their boss. This is sadly plausible. What use will this scolding then have been?
I'll add. Before you comment about shit, you need to read everything. Admitting to not doing that, and then commenting about all loads of bullshit, well, that just demonstrates and admits ignorance.
If i read an article that claims liberals are crying wolf about racism in society, and the first argument of the article is a photo of a black guy getting curbstomped on the sidewalk with the caption "THIS is what racism actually is, not what liberals are crying about", I'm going to stop reading, because it demonstrates a simpleton's view of racism.
Likewise, you have a simpleton's view of coups.
You seem to know "simpleton" very well...thanks for helping me turn away.
This is the hill you’re naming a stand on. Now?
Semantics?
SMDH
Ahh Mr. Chamberlain, you’ve rose from the dead! This view is as hollow as it is dangerous. Any forced collapse of a system of government would harken criticism. The word or terminology is not important. The transfer of wealth and control over the populace is what’s important. Take it at a euphemism then when I say: It’s a fucking Nazi coup…
When you break a long list of laws and refuse to enforce laws to implement a political ideology, it is a coup. Some apologist, retard level commentary but that’s what folks like you are all about. Dude, you are a goose stepper with zero redeeming qualities
You're the one trolling comment boards calling people you don't know Nazis and r--s. (unlike you, I don't use that word). I mean, if you had read ANY of the posts I put up the last two years you'd realize how stupid you sound right now.
Not to mention incorrect. So let me help you out. Here is how Websters describes a coup: "a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics and especially the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group." Nothing in your definition conforms to that; you just like SAYING that because it makes it SOUND worse. What I still don't get is why liberals are spending so much energy pushing that idea and when confronted by people on your side who want you reel in the crazy, you attack THEM. To that end, what Musk and Trump are doing IS ALREADY BAD, and requires no embellishment. Yet, calling something by what it is, using accurate language to describe things IS WHAT OFFENDS YOU? And THAT is the whole point of the article.
In that too, you may want to read today's piece that you can find here, because maybe then it might sink in why the Democratic Party polling is in the toilet right now. https://purpleusa.substack.com/p/dear-liberals-you-dont-need-to-embellish
Fuck off.
How dare you lecture people about the careful use of words while you twist and wind your way into legitimizing what is happening. Which is the clear and subversive buy out of democratic institutions by billionaires.
Don't be fucking stupid. Don't lecture people on how careful they should be with their words while they're terrified that the very bedrock of this nation crumbles.
Pick something to actually believe in and say it with your fucking chest. God this is so spinless
Whatever you want to call it, or demand it not be called, it's coming. This right here is where your naivete shows.... "Say what you will about Republicans, but ALL americans take pride in elections and their ability to change the course of political life if they get upset. If Trump actually tried to follow through on it, most Senators and Reps would impeach him out of fear of their own constituents. The only way this results in a coup is if Senators and Reps, outside of the legitimate authority granted to them by their constituents, supported Trump’s takeover of the government and rubber stamped it, or outright abolished Congress. That ain’t happening. "
It's happening in front of our faces. Everything Musk is doing, everything Trump is ordering, is creating chaos and inviting public protests so we're prepped for when Trump decides to declare martial law/national emergency right before the next election. The Senate is supporting "Trump’s takeover of the government and rubber stamp(ing) it" by confirming his slate of psychos for his cabinet.
They are not going to make the same mistakes they made during his first term.
I disagree Musk has the express authority from Trump
There are security and privacy laws that are clearly being breached
DOGE was set up to explore technology enhancements not changed every agencies technology in real time by college aged kids.
I read the entire article. While I agree with some points, I do not agree with a lot of your other points. And to focus on semantics as what you seem to see as an important issue is just plain ridiculous in the scheme of the destruction of our government, the lawbreaking, going against the Constitution, the lies, the theft of taxpayer money, the hardships caused to the poor & the needy, putting American lives at risk intentionally, the threats - the list is miles long. So you take issue with the word “coup”?!! Buh bye!!
« He won an outright majority of the vote as well, so there can be no question about a mandate. «
This is factually incorrect. He received LESS than 50 % of the vote, one of the lowest on record, and narrowly beat his opponent by one of the slimmest margins in American history. When less than half of voters supported him, no reasonable person can consider that a mandate.
Maybe this will help:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/20/trump-election-results-popular-vote/
Doubtful purple will agree with your factual statement cuz he’s not really purple. All one has to do is a simple Google to see that he did not win the mAJORITY of the votes
This is the first article I have read in a while, and I'm glad I didn't miss the comments on this one!
Not sure if you can see the shitheads I blocked or not. The number of idiots who chose to comment without reading the article yesterday were numerous, and their certainty while being wrong was dialed up to 11.
When an unelected non-government businessman and his non-security checked minions screw around with a citizens privacy, it sure seem like a coup to me! I had background checks and a lie detector test as a civilian county employee…give me a break