We all hear the talking points of the left regarding President Trump. He’s going to end democracy… there will never be a free election again, he will arrest the media, and there will be retribution against his enemies; the list of his alleged evil deeds is almost endless.
Do these actually hold water?
Seizing control of the US government is no simple task. In writing Blue Dawn, I had to go over a number of coup scenarios for the book. The biggest challenge is that to seize control, you must have complacency or support of the military and the means to still have a functioning government; all the while avoiding the consequences of the law.
Those who claim that January 6th was an insurrection fail to explain how, in any scenario, Donald Trump would have been able to seize and hold power. Even if this fantasy is played out, and the trespassers had rounded up Congress and had had him certified as the winner of the election, they would have simply reversed that vote the moment they were free. Impeachment would have been a slam dunk if that had been the plan. In reality, it was a protest that got out of hand, resulting in the tragic death of a single person, a protester.
Let’s play out the fiction of January 6th with a scenario where the full House and Senate were rendered unable to fulfill their duties after the intrusion in the Capitol, i.e, they were killed. If that had happened, processes exist to replace those roles in every state. Eventually the vote would have been reversed. In the short term, it would provide a false sense of legitimacy to an overthrow of the government.
The Supreme Court would have been engaged on the matter on an emergency basis. If the Supreme Court were not negated, they would be compelled to take legal action. Trump would have moved on the court. Reminder: this didn’t happen at all on January 6th.
Nixon contemplated having the 101st Airborne and local Marine troops surround the White House should he be impeached. If Trump considered this action, chances are he would have been met by Pentagon leadership that would have refused his orders as illegal and unjust. Some commands might follow Trump’s orders but in fairness, most would not.
For someone to overthrow the government, they must have and maintain the support of the masses. Remember, a significant percentage of his own party hated Trump and worked against him. If he broke countless laws to seize power, there would be rally cries from both sides of the aisle to remove him.
Would the vast machine of the federal government continue to operate if there had been a coup? No. Trump’s calls to “drain the swamp” would have led much of the federal government to shut down. The reality is most Americans wouldn’t care or notice if the federal government were to walk off their jobs. There are exceptions though. Once checks stopped coming out of Washington D.C. for things like Social Security, there would be a massive wave of pressure to remove any tyrant in office.
Playing this out further, assuming that through craftiness, he managed to stop a popular uprising in the nation to oust him, how long could he hold on to power? Chances are it would be days at best. Unless a coup d’état were horrifically bloody and wiped out the other two pillars of American government, it would be next to impossible to maintain control singlehandedly as Chief Executive. World outrage would be sparked even among allies. Calls to form a government in exile would have followed. Control would wane each hour. The pinnacle of Trump’s power in life was when he actually was the President. If he wanted to “end democracy,” the time to do so was when he was at the peak of his power. In fact, peacefully turning over power, Trump made any of these fanciful speculations, obsolete and the stuff of fiction. Why return to the status of a private citizen and have to run for reelection when you were already the Chief Executive? Why risk losing an election a second time around?
The myth of Trump’s dictatorship does not hold water and never has. It was never about him actually doing it. The reason it exists is fear. It generates anxiety in voters; a sense of dread designed to alter their votes. It is a propaganda tool designed to influence the election, nothing more.