Trump and his favorite nutcase Michael Flynn have been musing about staging a military coup. The idea Flynn is floating is to declare martial law in the swing states and have the military re-run the presidential election. It’s ridiculous. But then a lot of ridiculous things these days omehow end up happening.
The military is not supposed to follow an illegal order. Let’s hope they are all still on board with that. Assuming they are, this is how the process would go:
In the unlikely scenario that Trump were to issue an order to use the military to prevent the transfer of power, the order would go to the secretary of defense. In the unlikely scenario that the secretary were to decide to enforce the order (which, it should go without saying, would be illegal), he would relay the order to commander of the Northern Command, Gen. Glen VanHerck. There, VanHerck would consult with his team of legal advisers, who would inform him that the order was a grotesque violation of the Constitution, and VenHerck would refuse the order and send it back to the secretary of defense. Because, as Gen. Milley said, VenHeck’s loyalty lies with the Constitution, not a king or queen, and certainly not Donald Trump.
At noon on January 20, Biden will be sworn in as president, and the military will immediately recognize him as the commander in chief, even if Trump refuses to concede. Concession is not a constitutional requirement but a ceremonial act, and the transfer of power does not require it.
The scenario that would allow for martial law, as Flynn is promoting, would be massive unrest in the streets in those places where they need it. I suppose it’s possible that the right wing crazies could try something but I doubt they are that organized. At least not yet … And there is no precedent for the military to run elections in individual states. That’s just nuts.
They also point out that for all the talk among Democrats and others that the military would escort Trump out of the White House if he refused to go, that’s not how that would work either:
Americans need not worry about a military coup, and they certainly should stop asking for military intervention either to keep Trump in power or to remove him from office. If he refuses to leave the White House after Biden is inaugurated, he will simply be a trespasser and will be removed by the Secret Service (part of the Department of Homeland Security)—not the military.
This is a good point. If Trump were to dig in his heels we have plenty of ways of evicting him without bringing in the military.
The shocking thing is that we are even talking about this.
It’s Happy Hollandaise time. If you’re of a mind to drop something in the old Hullabaloo Christmas stocking, you can do so below.
cheers,
digby