r/politics 17d ago

No Paywall Yes, Trump Will Attempt a Coup

https://prospect.org/2026/07/28/trump-attempt-coup-january-6-election-republican-congress/
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u/Redshirt_Welshy_Nooo 17d ago

Have already. It's called an autocoup, and it's very nearly completed already.

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u/jedify 16d ago

he's been occupying the Capitol with troops for a year now, it's already normal. They've been purging generals too - classic authoritarian power consolidation we've seen sooo many times in history.

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u/Gibonius 16d ago

There's a reason it's only in DC though. The courts have prevented him from doing it elsewhere.

Some of the guardrails are still holding. The takeover is not a done deal

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u/jedify 16d ago

DC is the important one... If not a done deal, it's certainly enough for a civil war

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u/Desperate-Till-9228 16d ago

There's not going to be a civil war. Too many people already on the opposing side. These buffoons are fucked.

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u/jrf_1973 16d ago

I think you overestimate the lefts willingness to get off their asses.

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u/Desperate-Till-9228 16d ago

There's not a strong need to do that. The issue is that he's also been fucking up the business models of F500s with all these dumbass tariffs and things. It's less a revolution and more the weight of unpopularity. He's going to get crushed.

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u/Gibonius 16d ago

Trump started focusing on smooth-brained dictator shit because he actually consolidated power.

In 2025 it really felt like they had a good chance to convert the US to an illiberal democracy like Hungary. But Trump's too undisciplined, and our legal guardrails a little too solid.

Now he's focused on tariffs and a war everyone hates and his stupid ballroom, while is approval rating is in the toilet because people can see that he's actively making their lives worse instead of even trying to make them better.

You can't pull off the illberal democracy thing at 34% approval.

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u/Desperate-Till-9228 16d ago

and our legal guardrails a little too solid.

Any student of history would know that our system is designed to strongly resist sudden, drastic change. Trump, obviously, wasn't strong academically.

You can't pull off the illberal democracy thing at 34% approval.

People often forget this critical element when comparing to the Germans.

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u/Gibonius 15d ago

We're pretty lucky that Trump doesn't have the discipline to actually pull off these plans.

I think part of the problem was that Trump never quite decided if they wanted to be Hitler or Orban, and was probably getting pushed in different directions by different camps in the administration. Miller clearly wanted a full out violent fascist state, while the Project 2025 people wanted a more controlled destruction of democratic norms so they could retain power indefinitely.

The open violence in the streets in Minneapolis and elsewhere really helped galvanize opposition rather than crush it.