Power & Security, United States Trump’s not staging a coup, but attacking democracy and helping U.S. enemies

People keep asking me whether I believe President Trump is plotting a coup to prevent Joe Biden from taking office.

Those fears have arisen, of course, as Trump insists he won, and floods his fans with lies about massive voter fraud. Meantime, he sacks the secretary of defense and packs top Defense Department posts with partisan cronies...

“In a transition period there is already going to be turbulence, and leaders should try to provide stability so enemies don’t take advantage,” I was told this week by H.R. McMaster, who served a rocky year as Trump’s national security adviser...

“Trump has struggled time and again to get the Pentagon to do his bidding,” says John Gans, former chief Pentagon speechwriter and author of White House Warriors, a history of the National Security Council. “These [four men] are the foot soldiers of Trump’s war on government, his war on what he calls the ‘deep state.’ They are willing to bend and break the rules.”

Read more in The Philadelphia Inquirer >>