The Failed Coup d’État of 2026?

Are Donald Trump and his associates planning a coup if they lose control of Congress following a possible Democratic victory in the 2026 elections?  And, if not in ’26, what about 2030 election?

In anticipation of losing the ’26 Congressional election, Republican governors in an increasing number of states – including Texas, Missouri, Indiana, Kansas, Utah, Ohio, Louisiana and Florida – have either redrawn or planned to redraw state electoral maps to increase Republican Congressional seats.

Making matters worse, the Trump administration shows signs of becoming an ever-more authoritarian regime. These include ICE’s militarization of local policing; the gerrymandering of Congressional districts; challenging judges who ruled against them; the prosecution of political opponents; threatening what can be taught in universities; and increasing restrictions of press freedom.

Trump and his associates attempted a coup in 2021 after he was defeated in the 2020 elections.  The Cline Center’s Coup d’État Project defiines the storming of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, as “an attempted coup d’état: an organized, illegal attempt to intervene in the presidential transition by displacing the power of the Congress to certify the election.”

There were only two other coup attempts in the last two centuries of American history.  The failed coup attempt of 1861 — popularly known as “Confederate Coup of 1861” — that occurred on February 18, 1861, and led to the establishment of the Confederate government.  It was followed by the Civil War.

The second coup took place in 1933 and is known as the “Wall Street Putsch.”  It began when Smedley Butler, a retired Marine Major-General, was approached by a businessman claiming to represent a group of wealthy executives and 500,000 military veterans who wanted to overthrow Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt and establish a fascist state.

Butler had served a 34-year career in the military and earned 16 medals (5 for valor), a Marine Corps Brevet Medal and two Medals of Honor.  He participated – and eventually led – military campaigns to annex the Philippines and the land that became the Panama Canal, twice led troops in China and invaded and occupied Nicaragua, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

In 1915, two regiments of Marines landed in Haiti and the U.S. installed a senator as head of state followed by a staged election.  Butler assumed a critical, leadership role, effectively serving as the minister of interior. He oversaw the development of the postal service, telegraph system, a hospital and ever hundreds of miles of roads. He even established a forced-labor system resembling slavery. Most consequential, he supervised the training of the 3,000-man police force and served as its leader.

Jonathan Katz assesses Butler’s role in the failed 1933 coup attempt in Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire (2022).  Katz’s biography is an important reminder of how modern America’s global imperialist role was established – its shadow haunts us to this day.

Under the alleged scheme that is known as the “Business Plot” – aka the “Wall Street Putsch” and the “White House Putsch” — FDR would either be ousted from the government or sidelined with an appointee who would serve as the real power in the administration.

Butler informed federal agents of the plan and, in ’34, testified before the Un-American Activities Congressional (HUAC) committee. His allegations were accepted as credible, noting that it has received evidence of “an attempt to establish a fascist organization in this country.” However, there was no follow-up, and no one was prosecuted.

Reflecting on the “Business Plot,” Butler later wrote, “I spent 33 years and 4 months in active service as a member of our country’s most agile military force – the Marine Corps. … And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was I was a racketeer for capitalism.”

Butler’s most celebrated public appearance was at the “Bonus Army” rally in 1932.  As the Great Depression set in, some 250 veterans from Portland, OR, traveled to Washington, DC, demanding that the federal government finally pay out the bonus that had been promised to those who had served overseas military during World War I. Before a crowd of thousands, he stood on a stage at the Anacostia Flats camp and declared:

“We are divided, in America, into two classes: The Tories on one side, a class of citizens who were raised to believe that the whole of this country was created for their sole benefit, and on the other side, the other 99 per cent of us, the soldier class, the class from which all of you soldiers came. That class hasn’t any privileges except to die when the Tories tell them.”

The Bonus Army was remarkable because it was racially integrated at a time when Jim Crow laws were in full force.

The Bonus Army assembly was broken up when Pres. Herbert Hoover ordered as U.S. Army troops, led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur and assisted by Majors George Patton and Dwight Eisenhower, to end the occupation. The military assault resulted in three veterans killed, 54 injured and 135 arrests.

Now, nearly a century after the “Bonus Army” and the “Business Plot,” is America poised for a possible third coup attempt?

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