Is the US ripe for a coup?

[Anomalocaris]

And when the president decides to launch a nuke at them?

Traditionally, US presidents have been discouraged from owning their own WMDs. It's considered more pragmatic to let the military keep them.

Us president has the final and unchallengeable authority to use the country’s nuclear weapons.

But presumably the country that saw fit to trust such a burden to its chief executive and commander in chief of its armed forces, and which was great enough to survive and win, for the time being, the Cold War, could not have been the same one that could have made trump its chief executive and commander in chief of its armed forces.

[AFTT47]

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.

Definitely this.

Thump and I are both US Air Force veterans. Take it from two of us who have been on the inside: this scenario is implausible in the extreme. Any generals trying something like this would be quickly put down.

That is not to say that an order to launch the nukes would necessarily be obeyed. There might very well be a refusal if the officers in question believed they were taking orders from a mad man. The furthest I think they would go beyond that though is to plead with their most immediate civilian superior to invoke the 25th Amendment. But a military coup? Like Thump said, that is unthinkable in the US military. Even if there are a few mavericks in high positions that would be willing to go there, the large bulk of
the ranks would not oppose them.

All that said, I am still STUNNED that there are enough fucking, clueless idiots out there that Donald Fucking Trump was actually elected President of the United States. I would have thought it more likely that Bozo the Clown would have been elected. So what do I know.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

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.

Definitely this.

Thump and I are both US Air Force veterans. Take it from two of us who have been on the inside: this scenario is implausible in the extreme. Any generals trying something like this would be quickly put down.

That is not to say that an order to launch the nukes would necessarily be obeyed. There might very well be a refusal if the officers in question believed they were taking orders from a mad man. The furthest I think they would go beyond that though is to plead with their most immediate civilian superior to invoke the 25th Amendment. But a military coup? Like Thump said, that is unthinkable in the US military. Even if there are a few mavericks in high positions that would be willing to go there, the large bulk of
the ranks would not oppose them.

All that said, I am still STUNNED that there are enough fucking, clueless idiots out there that Donald Fucking Trump was actually elected President of the United States. I would have thought it more likely that Bozo the Clown would have been elected. So what do I know.

He didn't get the majority vote. He won in the Electoral College.

[downbeatplumb]

The scenario is not realistic at all. Loyalty in the ranks is so rarely so personal that it would lead to treason.

There's an impeachment process, and it's likely to happen. Though maybe not before they get him to sign off on all the tax cuts and stuff they want him to do.

The 25th Amendment allows for his removal if found unable to discharge his duties, too.

Abraham Lincoln was removed from office quite swiftly I seem to recall.
He's one trip away from a visit to my American cousin from being gone.

[tjakey]

I'm not sure how the final stages of the demise of the US of A will play out. It might look like some kind of coup. Maybe territories like Guam and Porte Rico will break away in an effort to survive, followed by Hawaii, then CA, then a general disintegration like happened to the old Soviet Union. In any case, a nation so desperately ill as to allow a person like Trump to take the highest office in the land, backed by a party utterly devoid of any care for citizens or the future, is too desperately ill to survive. Our grand children will no grow up as "citizens of the United States of American." There will be no such political entity.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I'm not sure how the final stages of the demise of the US of A will play out. It might look like some kind of coup. Maybe territories like Guam and Porte Rico will break away in an effort to survive, followed by Hawaii, then CA, then a general disintegration like happened to the old Soviet Union. In any case, a nation so desperately ill as to allow a person like Trump to take the highest office in the land, backed by a party utterly devoid of any care for citizens or the future, is too desperately ill to survive. Our grand children will no grow up as "citizens of the United States of American." There will be no such political entity.

In the 1930s the Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt provoked such "wisdom" from the Grim Old Party. Didn't happen then, either.

[Thumpalumpacus]

The scenario is not realistic at all. Loyalty in the ranks is so rarely so personal that it would lead to treason.


The 25th Amendment allows for his removal if found unable to discharge his duties, too.

Abraham Lincoln was removed from office quite swiftly I seem to recall.
He's one trip away from a visit to my American cousin from being gone.

Yeah, I was referring to legal methods.

[Jehanne]

The scenario is not realistic at all. Loyalty in the ranks is so rarely so personal that it would lead to treason.


The 25th Amendment allows for his removal if found unable to discharge his duties, too.

Abraham Lincoln was removed from office quite swiftly I seem to recall.
He's one trip away from a visit to my American cousin from being gone.

I have read that there have been so many death threats against Trump that the Secret Service cannot keep up with them.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Abraham Lincoln was removed from office quite swiftly I seem to recall.
He's one trip away from a visit to my American cousin from being gone.

I have read that there have been so many death threats against Trump that the Secret Service cannot keep up with them.

The first time someone does that they get filed. If they repeat it the suits may take an interest.

[Foxaèr]

I have read that there have been so many death threats against Trump that the Secret Service cannot keep up with them.

Trump probably thinks of it as validation for his winning.