Over the recent days, a number of landmark events and significant reshuffles have taken place in the US Department of Defense. President Donald Trump fired the Secretary of Defense and his three deputies. Ten people left the defense policy Council, nine were sacked from the Defense Business Council to be replaced by Trump's henchmen. One of them, Scott O'Grady, twitted that Biden's election victory was a military coup attempt.
At the same time, the Pentagon leadership first announced ceased cooperation with new Democrat President Joe Biden's team, and later denied this information. It turned out afterwards that cooperation was suspended after all, but due to the Christmas holidays, which may last until the very inauguration on January 20.
As the Newsweek magazine reported last Thursday citing sources in the Ministry of Defense, the command of US armed forces and military units stationed near Washington, without telling President Trump or his supporters in the army command, discussed scenario for the Republican's decision to impose martial law before the inauguration. The military are very afraid of being drawn into political squabbles.
Locally, Trump supporters started urging the White House head to immediately impose martial law in the country. For instance, head of the Portage County Tea Party Tom Zawistowski bought an entire page in the Pro-Trump newspaper The Washington Times and published an appeal of his associates to the President. In it, the We The People Movement asks the head of state to impose martial law and hold a new election. The core message is to vote with paper ballots alone and show picture IDs before voting.
Finally, former Trump security adviser and ex-Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Gen. Michael Flynn proposed to introduce martial law via the Maxnews TV channel. "People out there talk about martial law like it's something that we've never done. Martial law has been instituted 64 times," he said in an interview.
In this regard, disputes immediately flared up in America about what can be considered martial law, in which case it can be imposed by the President or by the particular state's authorities, and how all of this is connected with the riot act. Whatever you call it, historical facts are stubborn things: in the XX century, tank-supported American soldiers regularly occupied American cities and states, establishing a wartime regime there.
It should be noted that regular application of military force against its own citizens is a rather delicate and touchy issue in the United States. As a rule, they don't like talking about it. But the 2020 election violated every rule and canon. For this reason, a possible military coup and martial law introduction is now openly debated by citizens and the mainstream media. This fact can only indicate how high the stakes are.
It seems that the line between public policy and private life, which has long been America's strong suit, is eroding before our very eyes. So far, everything has been obvious and simple: despite the election campaign political rivalry, everything returns to normal after the election. Traditionally, the inauguration day witnesses the future President and Vice President come to the White House after the church service to meet with their predecessors and drink tea. They then travel together to the government complex on the Capitol Hill, where the President-elect and Vice President-elect are sworn in.
This time, things will likely be different. As CNN reported yesterday, President Trump wants to break from tradition to leave the White House the day Joe Biden is inaugurated. According to the TV channel, he told several of his advisers that he would refuse to leave the White house voluntarily and would have to be kicked downstairs. There is certain concern about such a statement, but no one believes the current President will actually do so. Although, such a scenario may be reasonably expected, given Trump's unpredictability.
Let's recall that the Axios portal earlier reported Donald Trump's plan to leave the White House by helicopter on January 20, and then go to Florida by Air Force One. There he plans to address a large-scale rally of his supporters and announce plans to take part in the 2024 presidential election, thereby skipping all the official ceremonies in the capital. How are things going to evolve? We'll find out in three weeks. In the meantime, President Trump considers it necessary to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the November 3 election results following the victory of Democrat Joseph Biden. The White House head has announced this in a Twitter post.
In conclusion, please note that all of the above mentioned – the intervention of the military, mass protests gradually turning into carnage, threats and promises by Democrats to take revenge on the Republican supporters, open discussions of a coup – can only point to a major crisis of the American political system. Donald Trump's predecessor Barack Obama has repeatedly called America an exceptional country, and the current presidential election proves him right. Nowhere in the world, except Honduras and the Central African Republic (CAR), has a presidential election been accompanied by this kind of outrage this year. The United States seems willing to rank with these countries...
