A coup is in progress
The goal of the Trump administration (the coup) as outlined in the Project 2025 document and as is being carried out right now is to replace every member of the executive branch with people who align politically with the party’s agenda.
Why this is bad: The responsibility of the executive branch is to enforce the law. When everyone who is part of the executive branch aligns with each other, but not necessarily the laws that are responsible for enforcing, they will break the law. And because every person that they work with is okay with breaking the law as well, no whistleblowers exist and no accountability can be held.
If no accountability can be held, the coup can begin operations behind closed doors to:
- Leak confidential information about businesses and individuals to people, organizations, and companies outside of the federal government
- Engage in bribery for federal contracts
- Engage in bribing enterprises and people to disclose private information
- Blackmail
- Fund disinformation campaigns against the opposing party
Why this is a coup: The American government is designed to function as a system of checks and balances between the executive, legislative and judicial branches. The executive branch is responsible for enforcing the laws the legislative branch creates and the judiciary interprets those laws to ensure they align with the Constitution. This system prevents any one branch from gaining too much power or overriding the other.
If the executive branch breaks the law or does something unconstitutional, our government is designed so that someone can sue the executive branch and nullify such action if the courts find it to be illegal. An issue appears when the executive branch does break the law, but nobody calls it out or brings up a lawsuit because everyone in the executive branch is of the same party and such illegal actions can happen behind closed doors without repercussions. In this situation, the executive overrides the laws passed by the legislative branch and the judiciary fails to strike down such actions as illegal. This situation is what’s known as a constitutional crisis and ultimately can be recognized as a coup because absolutely no other branch of government can hold the executive branch accountable (legislative and judiciary have no authority over the executive, and the military is under the control of the executive).
Since the coup’s executive actions have repeatedly violated the law (as determined by the judicial branch) and they show no intention of stopping such actions, the question isn’t whether they are breaking the law in secret—they undeniably are.
What this is a sign for: Taking the time and money (Project 2025 cost $22 million) to completely replace the executive branch with partisan appointees would be pointless if the next administration would just come in, fire them all, and undo everything that they setup. That’s why the plan is to not have another administration. One should easily see that if the coup tried to remain in power after his term ended in 2020, there’s no reason to think why he wouldn’t try again. In fact, the coup in the House of Representatives and at the Conservative Political Action Conference are already creating drafting a plan to execute a “Third Term Project”, as reported by Newsweek.
By replacing the entire executive branch with “your people”, you are essentially creating a one-party state. Equivalent of that to the Soviet Union or the Chinese Communist Party. What are these regimes known for?
Zero transparency. Widespread corruption. Crushing dissent.
Corruption is now ok
- Elon Musk is a massive conflict of interest now being an employee of the Federal government. He has significant financial interests in his companies which receive federal contracts and now has control and influence of the systems and people which disperse such contracts.
- The FCPA is no longer enforced.
- Dismissal of corruption case against Eric Adams.
- New York governor Kathy Hochul refuses to dismiss Adams when she could have, making her guilty of corruption as well.
- Full pardon of Rod Blagojevich.
Political retribution is now ok
- Security clearances and contracts of a consulting agency that worked with Jack Smith to prosecute the coup have been eliminated by executive order.
Ukraine
- Why is the coup conceding to Putin? The coup has significant financial interest in expanding its businesses Russia.
What is to come
- Destruction of elections. The coup in 2020 claimed widespread fraud out of nowhere with zero reputable evidence held up in court. One would be foolish to think that the coup would not try again.
- Attacks on press and political enemies. The coup will utilize intelligence acquired by federal agencies and weaponize the DOJ and intelligence agencies to investigate and harass anyone who does not fall in line.
Someone isn’t going to save this country for you
All of this sounds very bad, and unfortunately we’re here to tell you that the systems you believe will be able to hold up our democracy when the coup happens will likely fail.
The media will not save you. You should not expect it to save you. Their job is attract clicks and make money by providing news. On the day of the coup, the front page of the New York Times will not be: “IMPEACH DONALD TRUMP”. It will be: “a coup happened’.
The Democrats will not save you. They do not have the House or Senate, and there is almost a zero percent chance they could win enough seats the Senate in 2026 to do an impeachment (they would need to win every single Senate seat up for reelection in order to do so). It’s going to take an action that has a profound impact on the American people in order to convince moderate Republicans (almost all of which have unfortunately fallen in line) to impeach, or an alliance like Students4Democracy that can resist and uphold our democracy.
The courts will not save you. The courts are reactive. They only respond to what laws have been identified as broken. One should assume that the executive branch is already breaking laws that nobody has identified as being broken and corruption is rampant. Pretty soon they WILL start breaking laws that affect you, and by that time, they could have already setup the systems to perform a coup and it would be too late.
The Supreme Court will not save you. They are the ones responsible for creating this mess to begin with by not upholding democratic principles and allowing the coup to run for president again in their decision in Trump v. Anderson. He never was required to face a fair trial after he clearly violated the 14th amendment. To assume they will withhold executive power after expanding it countless times before would be foolish.
The military will not save you. The military is under direct control of the executive branch. The coup may fire any commander or member of the military as they wish and they will do so in order to achieve their goals. In fact, the coup has already demonstrated this behavior by firing qualified individuals who have served under multiple administrations and replacing them with underqualified personnel.
Direct control of the military in order to execute a coup is exactly what happened when South Korea’s president Yoon Suk Yeol attempted to coup a strongly democratic government like the US’s in December 2024. He threatened the immediate removal of military generals who did not comply with his martial law order. As a result, the generals complied, and troops were deployed to the National Assembly building where they forcibly tried to prevent lawmakers from rescinding the martial law order.
The only person who can save your voice in society is you.
At Students4Democracy, we aim to spread these truths and build a coalition to resist, take back, and strengthen our democracy so that this never happens again.
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.