Originally published at: Watch: John Bolton says Trump is too dumb to pull off a coup | Boing Boing
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I’d like to know how much evidence this professional jackoff Bolton needs?
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Well, yeah, we all know Trump should be too dumb to pull off a coup. That’s a key reason he didn’t. It doesn’t mean all his enablers didn’t let him come extremely close when he tried.
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You only need smart people on your side for the “seizing and maintaining control” part. They aren’t required for the “let’s let it all burn down rather than cede power to the other guys” part.
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“Give him too much credit”… “gives him too much credit”… “give him too much credit”…
Outside of Bolton’s head, the Trump-worship movement has more important aspects than the possibility that he might receive credit that he doesn’t deserve.
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I suppose we should be thankful that Trump managed to alienate almost everyone that did the “advanced thinking, planning, strategizing, building up support” that got him elected in the first place.
Though I’m not sure if I prefer the world where Trump is an idiot that was used by people as a puppet candidate or the world where Trump has some sense and got him self elected.
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I wish that were always true, but it seems that there are some counterexamples out there. Idi Amin managed to seize power and rule for 8 years, and he certainly didn’t appear to be smart or have a lot of smart folks on his side. This documentary has a pretty stunning scene showing a cabinet session where it’s 100% clear that his ministers all knew perfectly well that he was insane and just tried (unsuccessfully) to keep their heads down and avoid his wrath.
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Since Bolton is a fascist, he would have some idea as to whether Biff would be welcome in the fascist club.
In this case, I think that Bolton is right – Biff would like to be worshiped as a fascist leader, but he lacks the discipline to be one, and he has no interest in actually governing as a fascist (or anything else).
I don’t know where I heard it first, but the previous administration’s legacy can be summed up thus: “malevolence tempered by incompetence, shot through with mendacity”
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Trump DID try to pull off a coup, what we saw on Jan 6th was his attempt, and it was poorly thought out (I hate to even say “poorly planned” because I don’t think Trump can plan more than one step in the future.)
He invited a rag-tag bunch of angry yahoos to DC, got them riled up, then went home and waited for something to happen.
He cheaped out on the coup the same way he cheaps out everything. Let someone else deal with the bill.
We can be thankful that Trump has spent his whole life just faking his way through every situation.
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Somehow, “don’t worry, he’s too stupid to pull off a coup” isn’t very comforting.
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Watch: John Bolton
Haha no.
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John Bolton needs to STFU because he was complicit in the beginning, and he’s still a terrible fucking excuse for a human being.
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There are a very few things I would like to hear from John Bolton. Most of them are confessions in court. Some might be apologies, but they really have to go with pleading guilty for me to count them.
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This take from Bolton is either incredibly naive or an attempt to cover for others.
Trump didn’t need to PLAN the coup. He had only express his desire, and the (marginally) more competent people around him would do the rest.
Does anyone doubt Steve Bannon would have been capable of planning it, had he not been on the outs?
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Well, to be fair, that was an insurrection, not a coup.
Bolton is right, an actual coup would have to be planned, including shoring up allegiances of the military brass. But fortunately, it seems the heads of the military are putting loyalty to the nation and the Constitution over that of a president. At least for now. 
We are lucky Trump is so grossly incompetent in everything he does. Next time it will be someone smarter.
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Yes, it was a effective training exercise for future incursions against the USA, and an effective recruitment apparatus to swell their ranks. On that we can agree.
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It isn’t SMART people that you need, it is LOYAL ones. Lots of them. At all levels of the military and security apparatus. And that loyalty has to be both extreme (willing to perpetrate a coup) and reach far down through the organization. Even if all the cabinet appointees are loyal, if the colonels and majors aren’t, the army won’t march on Congress. Fortunately, Trump actually isn’t very good at this. Witness how many people in the administration he had to replace for lack of loyalty. Say what you will about the “Deep State,” but it makes coups difficult, because he doesn’t appoint all the members of the civil service.
We came far closer than I’d like to a coup, but it is difficult to pull off in a state with long standing institutions and traditions of loyalty to something other than just an individual leader. One of the reasons that Hitler managed to seize power is that the Weimar Republic was a thin veneer of democracy over a country that was traditionally autocratic.
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Disposable ones too, as we can see the Magats stewing in prison. But history shows us many fools are willing to fall on the sword for the Dear Leader…
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An attempted coup. It came frighteningly close to succeeding. It did delay the official count of electoral votes.
It was a direct attack on not just the government, but the constitutional process of election and succession.
That’s more than just some farmers angry about booze taxes.
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