President Donald Trump’s stealthy and progressive ‘coup attempt’ remains a major political problem as he enters the final stretch of his presidency. It has successfully carried out its threat to challenge by all means at its disposal the electoral defeat of November 2020, including legal action, political pressure, the promotion of mass protest by the far right, not to mention threats of violence against election officials, including Republicans. .
Trump is now calling for the United States Senate and House to challenge the Electoral College vote on January 6, and his supporters to ‘march on Washington DC’, which could escalate into violence. In addition, the administration is increasing unfounded fears of ‘retaliatory’ attacks by Iranian forces to mark the January 3 anniversary of the assassination of General Suleimani with drones, and strengthening US naval, air and military forces in the Gulf.
Through a combination of fabricated election confusion, orchestrated internal political unrest, and the threat of military intervention that could lead to catastrophic loss of life, including US forces, Trump is creating the chaotic and confusing conditions for a possible declaration. of a national emergency. .
Senior U.S. Army officers are reportedly very concerned that Trump will generate domestic political violence in Washington DC on January 6 (or on January 20, the inauguration of President Joseph Biden) when the Congress confirms the Electoral College vote and announces Biden’s election. Trump tweeted a call for his supporters to protest the process, saying it will be “wild” while keeping his baseless electoral conspiracy theories stolen.
Senior uniformed servicemen worry that Trump will engineer a military adventure abroad as we approach the January 3 anniversary of the assassination of Iran’s General Suleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis with planes unmanned Americans. Trump has also voiced his desire to target Iran for rocket attacks on the US embassy in Baghdad. Anyone could be a base to mobilize the American military, declare a national emergency, and refuse to leave office – this has been discussed in such open terms in a number of respected outlets, including the Washington Post, Newsweek, The hill and CNN. Trump’s coup attempt has also been denounced in those terms by leading academics, including the historian of authoritarianism, Yale University Professor Timothy Snyder.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration denies Biden’s national security team access to key security-related information.
US President-elect Joe Biden delivers remarks on the US response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at its transitional headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, USA, December 29, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Jonathan Ernst / File Photo
In a recent media interview with General Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, a declaration of martial law was proposed to organize a replay of the “battlefield state” elections (Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, among others), and was subsequently discussed at the White House. The US military is so concerned that it was deemed necessary to issue a formal declaration that they will not intervene in the US elections, which in itself is an indicator of the depth of the crisis in US politics and government. The question remains, of course, as to any support among senior army officers that Flynn may have.
Trump has only added fuel to the fire since his decisive defeat in November 2020. He eliminated the existing civilian leadership at the Pentagon because they opposed his threats to attack Iran and abuse the military at home, and he named Trump loyalists. Now Trump is reported to be returning to the White House from Florida, missing his New Years party. Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley has stated that he will oppose the Electoral College vote on January 6 and demand a Congressional investigation into the November election. Hawley is positioning himself for a presidential race in 2024 by siding with Trump and his loyal voter base; other senators can follow suit. It is clear that Trump will be in Washington, DC, overseeing, orchestrating, and coordinating a concerted attack on American democratic forms, exploring every means at his disposal to hold on to office.
This ‘crisis policy’ is on full display in Georgia’s runoff elections scheduled for January 5: there have been death threats against the Republican governor, a Trump loyalist who refused to challenge the election result in your state, and against other elected representatives. . Trump has asked Governor Kemp to resign. Meanwhile, the Georgia Republican Party is still engaging in large-scale voter suppression tactics, some of which have been overturned in court. The most extreme Trump supporters are demanding that Republicans boycott the election due to claims of election manipulation. With a large-scale early voting, likely to lean toward Democrats, the Republican Party may well receive its well-deserved backlash in Georgia for its facilitation and appeasement of Trump and Trumpism in the past four years.
Trump accumulates manufactured crises into real crises that he is not interested in addressing. His last-minute demand for higher payments to the millions of economic victims of the pandemic has nothing to do with ordinary people in dire straits, and has a lot to do with pressuring and dividing the Republican party and building support for your own policy. schedule. The position of the Republican Majority Leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnel, will become untenable if the Republican Party loses the Georgia Senate seats. The fact that the Georgia elections seem so close suggests the depth of Trump’s effects there, and his ability and willingness to take on the most powerful leader in the Republican Party.
Crisis and divisions of both main parties
The Republican Party is increasingly divided: it pays the price of allowing and appeasing Trump and Trumpism. Democrats are split between bidenitas and the confident group of newly elected progressives in Congress. Biden is silent about the ongoing Trump coup, fearful of a progressive movement mobilized against fascism and authoritarianism.
However, it’s important to remember that Trump’s defeat in November was pretty decisive, overall. The US electorate drew a line against the politics of white supremacy, the border wall and the draconian attacks on immigrants, the disastrous handling of the pandemic, and against the definition of racist police violence as a mere matter of “law and order.” The election also resurrected the idea, albeit flawed in practice, of the United States as an open, tolerant, diverse, and welcoming “soft” democratic power. But be aware of the largely negative character of the line: against Trump, with a shred of anxiety-filled hope that Biden can tackle America’s biggest problems from a progressive perspective.
The anxiety of that hope, however, is that Biden will not want to be flanked by the right and will spend most of his political capital closing in on a Trumpist Republican Party (remember Trump’s 74 million votes and the possibility of him running in 2024). – Train progressive Democrats who did so much to energize youth, student, and minority votes. His alienation could be disastrous in 2024. Will Biden carry out a comprehensive reform of the healthcare system? Climate change policy that is really effective? Infrastructure investment in the American middle class? Something about college tuition fees and student debt?
The big picture is that the US remains in a deep and enduring crisis of legitimacy: loss of popular authority from both political parties and government, growing mass discontent, economic precariousness, a raging pandemic, people starving.
Along with popular misery and anger, the stock market recovers, as does American economic activity, to near-pandemic levels, enriching a few and underscoring many of both parties that the American political system really has little. to offer them in practice.
Inderjeet Parmar is Professor of International Politics at the City, University of London and Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. He is a columnist for The Wire. His twitter account is @USEmpire.
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