Two retired Army lieutenant colonels, John Nagl and Paul Yingling, issued what amounts to a call for a military coup against President Donald Trump, should there be a dispute over the outcome of the November presidential election. “We do not live in ordinary times,” they write in an “open letter” to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, published in Defense One on Aug. 11. “The President of the United States is actively subverting our electoral system, threatening to remain in office in defiance of our Constitution. In a few months’ time, you may have to choose between defying a lawless President or betraying your Constitutional oath.”
Nagl and Yingling speculate that Trump may refuse to leave office on Jan. 20 should the election go against him—they are certain that it will, based on odds of 91% provided by The Economist of London—and so therefore there are only two options: “Under the first, U.S. military forces escort the former President from the White House grounds,” they write; “under the second, the U.S. military remains inert while the Constitution dies. The succession of government is determined by extralegal violence between Trump’s private army and street protesters; Black Lives Matter Plaza becomes Tahrir Square.” They declare that “As the senior military officer of the United States, the choice between these two options lies with you.”
The “open letter” reads like it was written based on talking points provided by the Biden campaign, with a list of “reasons” why Trump might refuse to leave the White House if he loses the election. It is part of the British “strategy of tension” designed to polarize the United States past the point of governability.
