Is it too soon to speak of removing 47? REVISED

Better too soon than too late.

BACKGROUND

See,

1)Paul Rosenzweig, ”It’s Not Amateur Hour Anymore; Trump’s team is savvy and has been planning to remake the federal government for years,” The Atlantic, January 29, 202(11:58 a.m. ET);

2)Charles Lipson,“Trump’s first 10 days have overwhelmed the Democrats – and the liberal media; His second term has thus far been more productive and energetic than that of any president in history,” The Telegraph, January 29, 2025 (4:18pm GMT)

It seems fairly clear that 47 is determined to destroy parts of the government.

He and his team have been moving as quickly as they can. Unlike in 2017, this time they are highly organized and appear to have a strategic plan which they are executing at breakneck speed.

While some of the measures adopted by Trump may be popular and even welcome by some of his opponents, the focus of this column is on the risks to democracy represented by other actions and by 47 and his supporters.

Steve Bannon is reportedly a great admirer of Vladimir Lenin who in 10 short days seized control of the Russian government in the OctoberRevolution in 1917. 47’s first 10 days are shaping up to be reminiscent of that period.

In these short days 47 has pardoned the January 6 insurrectionists who invaded the Capitol as part of an attempted coup d’état. In doing so, he has given a green light to political violence against his opponents, and ensured that he will have a private militia at his beck and call if and when he decides to use it.

He has given Elon Musk sole control over the Orwellian Department of Government Efficiency, now renamed as an Executive Office in the White House. He has entrusted Musk with access to all the secret and other information the U.S. holds, including access to (and probably control over) the information architecture in all government departments and agencies including the White House.

He has issued an Executive order that grants “interim Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) security clearances” to anyone he designates or who the White House Counsel may designate. This action represents an extraordinary national security risk, which might well constitute an instance of “high crimes and misdemeanors” which could justify his removal from office.

Those granted access will include Musk and the team of engineers and others he will bring into his renamed Executive Office to modernize the use of information technology across the government.

Neither Musk nor the people he will bring with him (who will not be subject to regular hiring procedures) will have been vetted before they have access to the most sensitive classified information.

47 has nominated and secured the Senate confirmation of Paul Hegseth as Secretary d Defense. Hegseth’s only qualification appears to be blind and unswerving loyalty to the president. Hegseth is likely to be joined by other civilian leaders in the Pentagon of unquestioned loyalty to the president.

We don’t know why 47 and his fascist Republican supporters are putting in place the building blocks for a successful coup d’état. They have undoubtedly learned from their failed coup attempt in 2021.

All we can say for sure is that if they are planning such a coup, or a coup option, the steps they have taken so far fit the logical requirements for such an effort.

These requirements include:

1)Control of information and the flow of information.

This is a key element of all successful coups. That is why, before the Internet revolution, plotters of a coup in many countries generally sought to control the TV tower(s) as a first order of business.

With Elon Musk in a key position overseeing modernization of the information architecture of government departments and agencies, and the control of 47’s billionaire backers over information flows over social networks (e.g., X or Twitter, Facebook, Google) and major media (e.g., Washington Post, L.A. Times, new policies at CNN), 47 and his backers have already made extraordinary progress in this area.

2)Control of the military and any private militias. As noted, 47 already has the elements of a private militia at his command. His control of the military is not yet complete, but plans to proceed against Gen. Mark Milley,¹ the former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other military personnel changes at high levels suggest that 47 and his team are moving quickly with this goal in mind.

The withdrawal of Milley’s security detail constitutes a particularly egregious abuse of power, which could constitute a separate ground for removal from office. Such withdrawals of security protection, also done in the cases of former National Security Adviser John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, represent the politicization of essential protections for national security and other high officials.

The withdrawal of these protections amounts in practice to a death threat made by the president. Bolton has been the target of two Iranian assassination plots. Such a withdrawal constitutes a reprehensible abuse of power amounting to the use of terror to keep current and former officials from speaking out. It constitutes another ground for removal.

3)Political support

At present, 47 enjoys unparalleled political support, with the Republicans controling the presidency, both the House and the Senate, and with a sympathetic majority on the Supreme Court . This could change over time, particularly given the fact that 47 is a lame duck president.

Is this analysis overwrought? Perhaps.

Perhaps not.

Is it too soon to speak of removing 47?

It is never too soon to think of the steps that might be necessary to defend our democracy. We are talking about a president who has already led an attempted coup d’état. He is not entitled to a presumption he will act legally or in good faith.

A prudent course would be for the Democrats to start gathering the evidence and building the case for 47’s removal. Then, as each new outrage adds elements to their brief, they should be engaging their Republican counterparts in conversation.

As the “high crimes and misdemeanors” mount, the day may come when their Republican colleagues’ fear of a lame duck president diminishes, and they start thinking about the future, and even national security and the national interest.

Of course, Vice-President J.D. Vance represents a considerable risk himself. He appears to be guided mainly by extreme personal ambition. But while he appears totally unprincipled, to date he does seem to be rational. Whether he aspires to be a dictator or not is unknown.

Is it too soon to be speaking about the removal of 47?

As non-Nazi Germans who lived through the first months of 1933 could attest, it is better to be too soon than to be too late. As they did in Germany in January, February, and March1933, events can succeed one another very quickly in some circumstances.

There is always the possibility of an extraordinary, unforeseen event.

Like a Reichstag fire.

***

James Rowles is a former Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and professor of international law at other universities.

He studied the history of Nazi Germany at Stanford, and has studied and worked on human rights, judicial reform, and access to justice projects in many countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and in Afghanistan and Russia. At Harvard Law School, he taught a course on “Law, Human Rights, and the Struggle for Democracy in Latin America”.

At the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the OAS, he worked on human rights cases involving forced disappearances, executions, and torture in a number of authoritarian countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Recent Books by the Author

James P. Rowles, The Rape of American Democracy: Republican Actions and Democratic Failures, 2016-2021 (2024). Available on Amazon, and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.

James P. Rowles, Don’t Be Stupid. Pay Attention, Damn It! Advice for Undecided Voters and Voters Leaning Toward Trump (2024). Available on Amazon,and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.

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1. See, e.g., “Pete Hegseth takes action against Trump foe Mark Milley; The retired general, a frequent target of the president, will lose his security detail and face an inspector general investigation, senior defense officials said,” Washington Post, January 29, 2025 (12:17 p.m.).