A coup is a sudden, violent, and unlawful seizure of power from a government. Are we witnessing one in the United States? According to the journalist for the Today’s Edition Newsletter, Robert B. Hubbell, the answer is, “Yes.”

Hubbell, writes, “On Friday, January 31, 2025, Trump moved to complete the coup he began on January 6, 2021.” Hubbell goes on to say that mainstream media outlets are underplaying Trump’s actions as mere political maneuvering and asserts that the longer the American public takes to name Trump’s coup for what it is, the longer it will take to recover.

What makes this a coup?

The idea of a coup may bring to mind a violent overthrowing of the government by military forces. That doesn’t seem to be what is happening in the United States right now, so what makes Trump’s power grab a coup?

Hubbell points to the coordinated nature of the Trump administration’s attacks, led by Elon Musk and his Department of Governmental Efficiency, on the FBI, Department of Justice, Treasury Department, Office of Personnel Management, and other federal agencies. These attacks include:

• Taking over the Office of Personnel Management by connecting non-government computer servers to the U.S. personnel mainframe
• Locking senior OPM managers out of their computers
• Attempting to coerce federal employees into resigning by offering them eight months of severance pay
• Attempting to gain control of the U.S. Treasury payments system
• Firing 30 U.S. attorneys who prosecuted January 6 insurrectionists
• Threatening to fire senior FBI leaders if they don’t resign first
• Firing agents who investigated the January 6 insurrectionists and demanding a list of every agent who worked on the investigation
• Taking government websites offline and scrubbing them of references to gender and diversity and taking actions, such as removing the “T” and “Q” from references to the LGBTQ community
• Replacing mainstream media sources, such as the New York Times, NBC, and NPR with rightwing news outlets, such as Brietbart, New York Post, and OANN

According to Hubbell, these attacks constitute a hostile takeover of the United States government by Trump loyalists.

How can it be a coup when Trump was elected President?

Usually, coups involve an unelected group overthrowing the legitimate government of a country. However, in Trump’s case, Hubbell says it is Trump’s attempt to make himself a dictator by overthrowing the Constitution that makes this a coup. In other words, yes Trump was elected to be President of the United States, but Trump is using his power as the President to take unconstitutional actions with the goal of installing himself as a dictator.

What can we do to stop Trump’s coup from succeeding?

Hubbell calls on the American public to amplify the voices of those who are sounding the alarm on Bluesky, Facebook, and independent media and add our own voices to the outcry. Additionally, he suggests that we can halt this coup by withdrawing our consent to be governed by the Trump administration and our participation in the U.S. economy.

This could mean organizing street protests, work slowdowns or strikes, taxpayer strikes, and business and transportation boycotts. Hubbell is optimistic that the American people won’t sit still for this hostile takeover; however, he warns that stopping it will require Americans to get out of their comfort zones and leave the anonymity of their computer screens.

He also cautions us that merely complaining, pointing out problems, and assigning blame is not a strategy. Instead, he says we must take action.