I have to give a hearty hat tip to the blogfather Glenn Reynolds for pointing this story out. Not that I want to. Everybody wants to take credit for good takes, but there it is. I am stealing his idea, and it is only fair to admit it.
The story at issue is an opinion piece in The New York Times, written by two former National Security Council officials, Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson, who worked for Obama, in which they explain why the US military should commit treason and quit obeying civilian authority.
In effect, they are calling for a military coup, along the lines of General Milley’s traitorous acts in which he assured China that he would betray his oath in their defense. Milley belongs in Leavenworth; these men should lose their prestigious positions at Dartmouth and the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. I know of no crime they committed other than violating their duty to their country.
We used to think the military would stage an armed coup against an elected US president. We were wrong what https://t.co/OONV7Nf5Eo pic.twitter.com/IZNcS0LH2F
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) August 14, 2025
Their complaint? That the US military is obeying civilian authority because it is wielded by a President for whom they did not vote.
As certified members of the Deep State™, this is an abomination to them. It is almost as unthinkable as a Department of Justice lawyer prosecuting a Democrat still in favor with his party, or drinking red wine with fish. Other than salmon. Salmon is on the edge.
Military folks are required to wear creased pants, at least in dress uniforms, and creased pants are associated with Obama, while Trump looks frumpy in his tailored suits. They worked for Obama, so they demand more loyalty from their soldiers.
The fact that a recently-retired Army general felt it was OK to write an article that is essentially calling for a military coup d’etat tells you all you need to about the challenges faced by Trump and Hegseth in restoring our military to a lethal, apolitical, warfighting force. https://t.co/Vl40nhAQtr
— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) August 14, 2025
Milley is their model of a modern (non-Major) general.
By ordering 800 National Guard troops to Washington, on the pretext of an illusory crime wave, President Trump has further dragged the U.S. military into domestic law enforcement, in a move credibly perceived as an ominous “test case.” This continues what the administration started in California in June as part of the its deportation efforts.
Unfortunately, though we (and others) had hoped that the military would only respond to calls to action in American cities and states kicking and screaming, we no longer expect resistance from that institution. Once, perhaps, traditionalist officers might have leaned on protocol and refused to heed a lawless order, taking inspiration from the generals — Mark Milley and James Mattis — who resisted the uprooting of established military standards in the first Trump term.
But today, general officers no longer seem to see themselves as guardians of the constitutional order.
It now seems clear to us that the military will not rescue Americans from Mr. Trump’s misuse of the nation’s military capabilities. Recent changes to the terms of the military’s employment by the Pentagon and its members’ incentives to career advancement will ultimately overcome any constitutional and moral qualms about their conduct.
“Illusory crime wave.” Washington’s murder rate is higher than any capital city in the developed world, unless you count Caracas. I don’t consider Venezuela to be developed any longer.
Democratic civilian control and the apolitical professionalism of military officers have long been bulwarks against authoritarianism. This framework proved stable through the 20th century, even when tested by the Vietnam War, in significant part because American presidents and their civilian advisers could be trusted not to imperil the political integrity of the Republic.
Mr. Trump, however, has challenged this civil-military calculus. Since the military resisted his efforts to use active-duty personnel against Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020, liberals have put their faith in the military as a last line of defense against a rogue executive branch.
These men invoke the “but Trump” exception to the Constitution. It is a well-known, if unwritten, clause that says “civilian control of the military, or any part of the government, may not be exercised by anybody that the elite does not approve of.”
There was a time in our country when liberals feared that the military would take over the government and plot against the democratically elected president, but it turns out that they love the principle; they worried that, at the time, the generals opposed communism and hence would support the wrong side.
But Obama’s generals–you DO know that general officers are picked and approved by politicians, and not merely technocrats elevated based on merit, right?–were of the right sort. They could be counted upon to support liberal policies. And in times when a Democrat isn’t in office, they should be counted upon to collude with opponents of the president to undermine him, even if that means collaborating with the Chinese Communist Party as Milley did.
Again, that is Article VIII of the Constitution, written in invisible ink that can only be seen by Democrats and technocrats.
The liberals and Pravda Media always blather on about Trump’s threat to democracy, and yet they always advise the most totalitarian means possible to “save it.” By now everybody should realize that saving “democracy” means “promoting Democrats,” yet somehow a large chunk of the country either approves of this or has not grasped this basic fact.
Millions of Times readers will nod their heads along with these traitors and lament that there has yet to be a military coup in the United States.
And then call us Nazis.
Stevenson, in particular, must be angry at his former students. He taught at the Naval War College, which gives you an idea of what our military officers are being taught these days. Fortunately, most officers still take their oaths seriously, and even more fortunately Secretary Hegseth is rooting out the officers inclined to commit treason.
It should never have come to this, though.
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