The Failed Coup d’État of 2026? |
Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair
Are Donald Trump and his associates planning a coup if they lose control of Congress following a possible Democratic victory in the 2026 elections? And, if not in ’26, what about 2030 election?
In anticipation of losing the ’26 Congressional election, Republican governors in an increasing number of states – including Texas, Missouri, Indiana, Kansas, Utah, Ohio, Louisiana and Florida – have either redrawn or planned to redraw state electoral maps to increase Republican Congressional seats.
Making matters worse, the Trump administration shows signs of becoming an ever-more authoritarian regime. These include ICE’s militarization of local policing; the gerrymandering of Congressional districts; challenging judges who ruled against them; the prosecution of political opponents; threatening what can be taught in universities; and increasing restrictions of press freedom.
Trump and his associates attempted a coup in 2021 after he was defeated in the 2020 elections. The Cline Center’s Coup d’État Project defiines the storming of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, as “an attempted coup d’état: an organized, illegal attempt to intervene in the presidential transition by displacing the power of the Congress to certify the election.”
There were only two other coup attempts in the last two centuries of American history. The........