Is the US ripe for a coup?

[Ravenshire]

He'd fire them to be sure, but I suspect that they would not leave their posts willingly.

They wouldn't have any say in the matter, but even if they did have a say, I very highly doubt they'd mount a coup. These are men and women who have sworn their lives to this country. The idea that they'd knowingly tear it apart -- because a coup would most certainly have that result -- is highly implausible.

The concept of civilian control of the military is deeply ingrained in American military doctrine throughout the ranks, as well.

Between those two factors, a military coup, while not entirely impossible, is so implausible that it doesn't merit serious consideration.

While I can see some scenarios leading to a military coup as possible, each is as unlikely as the last. As Thump pointed out, loyalties in the military do not lend themselves to treason. As a former serviceman, I can say the greatest loyalties I observed, and felt in myself, were to my brothers in arms. Not to some general in a cushy, air conditioned Washington office. The most respected man in an Army grunt's life us usually his squad leader, or maybe his platoon leader. For any coup to be successful, those Washington bureaucrat generals would have to sway the loyalties of the majority of all those squad and platoon leaders to have even the slightest chance of success.