A Redditor seems to have figured it out. It’s hard to argue that the current administration’s actions don’t qualify as a coup. As defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary, a coup is a sudden illegal, often violent, taking of government power, especially by part of an army. Readers may decide for themselves whether the list of actions below qualify as acts of war against American citizens.
Actions of the Trump / Vance / Musk Administration
Coming up: Trump moves to cancel recent union agreements with federal workers – Donald Trump said on Friday that any collective bargaining agreements reached with federal workers within 30 days of his inauguration will not be approved. Globe and Mail
Jan. 31: A senior Treasury official is set to resign after Musk’s allies at DOGE repeatedly demanded access to sensitive government payment systems RollingStone
Jan. 31: Aides to Elon Musk charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, according to two agency officials. The two officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said some senior career employees at OPM have had their access revoked to some of the department’s data systems. REUTERS
Jan. 31: Trump administration directs 70% cut to internal OPM staffing, programs – Trump administration officials are taking major steps to cut down the size of the workforce and federal programs at the Office of Personnel Management. During an internal meeting Friday morning, Trump officials directed OPM senior staff to begin plans to cut the agency’s workforce and programs by 70%. Political leadership at the agency also directed OPM leaders to stop work on anything that is not statutorily required. By Monday, all OPM offices are expected to give political leaders organizational staffing charts with plans for an initial 30% reduction for both federal employees and contractors. It’s likely the cuts will impact Retirement Services, the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, and other major federal programs that OPM runs. If employees don’t take the deferred resignation, the next phase will likely be issuing reductions in force (RIFs) and creating performance evaluation plans to try to further cut down the size of the federal workforce. FedNewsNetwork
Jan. 28: Donald Trump offers redundancy packages to federal workers who do not return to office – The White House human resources arm sent a letter to more than 2mn government workers on Tuesday evening offering eight months of salary to any who resigned by next Thursday. It included a “deferred resignation letter” for anyone who wanted to participate. Administration officials said the offer was available to all full-time federal employees except for members of the armed forces, the US Postal Service and positions related to immigration enforcement. Federal employees may choose to return to work in the office full-time, but those workers could be cut later, according to a copy of the White House’s memo seen by the Financial Times: “At this time we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency but should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity and will be afforded protections in place for such position,” the memo read. FT (See the Email)
Jan. 26: Trump Unlawfully Purges Independent Watchdogs who Police Federal Agencies Sources
