“I think, in many ways, the uniformed military may help save us from this president.” – Senator Mark Warner on MS NOW

One of the reasons why civilians living in the Western world have comparatively high levels of public trust in their militaries is that their service members are taught to obey only lawful orders, the kind that satisfy basic moral and constitutional demands. That’s an important principle for most Americans, whose peace of mind relies on our military being under civilian control.

But what happens if a revolutionary movement works to divide the chain of command from elected lawmakers? Congressional Democrats, in partnership with mainstream media figures and establishment actors, have been running just such a play.

Judging by the War Department’s actions to capture cosplay Venezuelan “President” Nicolás Maduro and his wife, it seems that the latest attempts to cast Donald Trump as a dictator in the minds of America’s men and women in uniform have failed. Yet it would be a catastrophic mistake to dismiss the highly organized effort to turn the U.S. military against President Trump as more of the same partisan rhetorical games of the past. Had the Left succeeded, helicopters could have been hovering over the White House instead of a compound in Caracas. In their minds, that remains the desired outcome.

In 2020, Michael Anton warned of a coming coup. He noted the Pentagon’s opposition to President Trump and the Democrats’ desire to use military force to drag Trump from the White House. Even after the president’s first term concluded, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley took the unprecedented action of continuing to accuse his former commander in chief of being a dictator, signaling that affection for President Trump was something to be purged from the force. When Joe Biden moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, efforts to separate the military from the White House ceased.

But the coup fever returned in 2025.

The false narrative that Donald Trump regularly abuses his power as commander in chief was reintroduced during confirmation hearings for top Pentagon officials tapped to serve in his second administration. Senate Democrats labeled orders President Trump issued as likely illegitimate, and therefore needing to be resisted by the military. That was Phase One of Coup 2.0.

Phase Two opened in November with a video featuring seven congressional Democrats calling on military members to disobey unnamed unlawful orders given by President Trump as commander in chief. “This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens,” they claimed. This script continued: “The American people need you to stand up for our laws, our Constitution, and who we are as Americans. Don’t give up the ship.”

When questioned on the specific illegal orders President Trump issued, video participants could not point to a single one.

Senator Elissa Slotkin told Martha Raddatz on ABC’s This Week that members of the military should go to their JAG officers for legal advice on whether or not to “push back” on orders they receive. This innocent-sounding recommendation from a U.S. senator, however, was meant to transfer authority for military operations from commanders to an increasingly left-wing group of attorneys.

In an interview with Don Lemon, Representative Eric Swalwell said that military members he spoke with assured him they’ll be a check against Donald Trump. And why wouldn’t the congressman feel comfortable making such a claim? Nearly every official who enabled the Cultural Revolution across the military in recent years remains. Many still-serving military members I speak with tell me of supervisors who convey open hostility toward the administration in unguarded company.

Phase Three of Coup 2.0 revealed the “Not What You Signed Up For” campaign, which placed billboards outside of bases, including MacDill Air Force Base, Fort Bragg, and Camp Lejeune, aimed at making military members question the legitimacy of President Trump’s orders. Launched by the progressive activist organization group Win Without War, the campaign connects military members with organizations that assist them with pushing back against lawful orders, and advises them on how to use encrypted means of communication to avoid being tracked.

Then tragedy struck on November 26. A refugee from Afghanistan gunned down Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe near the White House. The perpetrator, who traveled cross-country to commit this atrocity, was a CIA asset during the war in Afghanistan. Roughly two weeks before the murders, Senator Slotkin predicted that military members and law enforcement officers would be the ones shooting Americans. California Governor Gavin Newsom added that the limited deployment of National Guard troops to assist local law enforcement in quelling violence in major cities throughout the U.S. was “right out of the dictator’s handbook.”

This shift in strategy was aimed at sowing fear among military members that they would be prosecuted for alleged war crimes by future Democratic administrations. On MS NOW, former Army JAG Glenn Kirschner ominously warned that service members would be held accountable for simply following orders given under the Trump Administration, as German troops were at the Nuremberg trials. Democratic Congressman Eugene Vindman echoed this threat. (It should be noted that as a uniformed Army lawyer, Vindman prosecuted the military’s sole court-martial against a soldier for refusing actual unlawful COVID-policy orders.)  

Within a week of the D.C. shooting, the Washington Post attempted to give Democrats a proof point for the allegedly unlawful nature of orders the administration has given to the military. Phase Four of Coup 2.0 opened with the Post running a since-debunked report on November 28 claiming that Secretary Pete Hegseth had ordered the killing of survivors of an air strike on a drug-running boat in September. It just so happened that two days prior, Virginia Senator and former vice-presidential candidate Tim Kaine called the strikes illegal.

Don’t Give Up the Ship video participant Senator Mark Kelly then introduced an updated line of rhetoric during a Meet the Press appearance. He stated that service members who don’t have time to investigate an order’s legitimacy should assume it is illegal and disobey. In a subsequent MS NOW appearance, Kelly claimed that the military is being given orders that are “clearly unlawful” and “illegal,” which he then said was the point of the original video that he and six other congressional Democrats recorded. Kelly remains the most enthusiastic spokesman for Coup 2.0, seeking out media opportunities like human beings need oxygen.

The Democrats’ efforts to sever military command from elected leadership constitute the seventh, and final, step for state revolution by sowing division within the military, as noted by Stanford University political science professor Michael McFaul.

In a rare show of accountability for encouraging sedition, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on January 5 that he issued a formal letter of censure that’s been placed in Kelly’s file. Hegseth also noted that the Pentagon is initiating retirement grade determination proceedings to determine if Kelly will retain the rank of captain. Both are administrative rather than legal actions—meaning they can’t be challenged in the courts. Taking this route instead of recalling Kelly to active duty in order to court-martial him denies Kelly the opportunity to grandstand in uniform. He will huff and puff and continue fundraising off it, but he can’t do anything about it.

Coup 2.0 has seemingly failed, but we dare not ignore the intent of those behind it. Conservative thinkers, think tanks, donors, venture capitalists, and policymakers must understand that Democrats and their courtiers are trying to foment yet another coup against President Trump. That is a play used in every successful Communist revolution of the previous century. We dare not allow it to happen here. Those who are working to cut the last fibers of connectivity between America’s military and the people it exists to protect from enemies foreign and domestic must be defeated.