It’s a Coup
A coup without military force is still a coup
I’m finding that some of the best sources of news reporting and analysis in these early weeks of the Trump Takeover can be found right here on Substack. The consensus among many of my favorite, most respected pundits (on Substack and elsewhere) is that what we are currently witnessing in Washington, D.C. — where Elon Musk’s minions are taking control of the computer systems by which modern government is managed — is a coup.
Most of us imagine armed, camouflage-clad rebels driving military tanks through the streets when we think of a coup. Wielding violence or the threats thereof, insurgents storm government buildings to overthrow the government and take over the levers of power.
But like modern-day warfare, a modern-day coup can succeed with little more than bluster and the power of technology. As Timothy Snyder says, “In the third decade of the twenty first century, power is more digital than physical.” And there is no need to overthrow a president who is wholeheartedly behind the destruction of the U.S. government.
Below are links to a few recent short articles on the subject that I think are worth reading, with some key snippets from each one.
What can we do, besides sit back and watch in horror? Take to the streets! Contact your Senators and Representative, and let it be known far and wide that we understand what is going on and will not stand for it! Check out this Indivisible web page for tips on how to proceed. It may not be much, but we cannot be silent.
The Coup D’Etat Has Begun
It is Day 18 of the Coup…. None of what’s happened in these past 18 days is surprising, as … [Trump] is the most “honest” President we’ve had in our lifetime. He has announced over and over what he was going to do should the American people let him back into the White House.
Of Course It’s a Coup
Miss the obvious, lose your republic
Imagine if it had gone like this.
Ten Tesla cybertrucks, painted in camouflage colors with a giant X on each roof, drive noisily through Washington DC. Tires screech. Out jump a couple of dozen young men, dressed in red and black Devil’s Champion armored costumes. After giving Nazi salutes, they grab guns and run to one government departmental after another, calling out slogans like “all power to Supreme Leader Skibidi Hitler.”
Historically, that is what coups looked like.
Musk’s Junta Establishes Him as Head of Government
Imagining how we’d cover overseas what’s happening to the U.S. right now
What started Thursday as a political purge of the internal security services accelerated Friday into a full-blown coup, as elite technical units aligned with media oligarch Elon Musk moved to seize key systems at the national treasury, block outside access to federal personnel records, and take offline governmental communication networks.
Is It Really a Coup?
Is it really a coup if it doesn’t feel like one? If your day-to-day life hasn’t changed? Can it be a coup if I can still write posts like this? What we’ve seen over the last two weeks and accelerating over the weekend looks like a coup, a hostile, undemocratic takeover of government.
A New Kind of Coup: Trump and Musk are Updating the Autocratic Playbook
The assault on our democracy seen through the lens of authoritarian practice
It seems like the plot of a political thriller. We are living through a new kind of coup in which Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has taken over the payment and other administration systems that allow the American government to function, and has locked out federal employees from computer systems. Many of Musk’s collaborators in this endeavor previously worked for his private companies and/or helped him take over Twitter.
Letters From an American
February 3, 2025
I’m going to start tonight by stating the obvious: the Republicans control both chambers of Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate. They also control the White House and the Supreme Court…. [T]hey are permitting unelected billionaire Elon Musk, whose investment of $290 million in Trump and other Republican candidates in the 2024 election apparently has bought him freedom to run the government, to override Congress and enact whatever his own policies are by rooting around in government agencies and cancelling those programs that he, personally, dislikes.
The replacement of our constitutional system of government with the whims of an unelected private citizen is a coup.
The Billionaire Coup is Almost Complete and No One Stopped It — Can We Return to Democracy?
How America’s ultra-rich dismantled democracy, one Supreme Court ruling at a time…
There is one thread that ties together Trump’s destruction of American government agencies, his offer to take the Gaza crisis off Israel’s hands and dump it on our military, and senators’ and representatives’ failure to challenge him: This is how kingdoms operate. Rule by decree.
But some are new to me! So thank you!
Yup. I have read many of the above newsletters