A former Defense Department official under the Obama administration has raised the specter of a military coup to remove President Donald Trump from power.
In an editorial penned for Foreign Policy, senior Pentagon policy official Rosa Brooks publicly suggested a military insurrection against the Trump administration may be the only option to oust one of the most divisive presidents in American history.
“Donald Trump’s first week as president has made it all too clear: Yes, he is as crazy as everyone feared,” Ms. Brooks wrote. “[One] possibility is one that until recently I would have said was unthinkable in the United States of America: a military coup, or at least a refusal by military leaders to obey certain orders.”
For the first time in her career in public service, including three years as senior counselor to the Pentagon’s policy chief from 2009 to 2011, “I can imagine plausible scenarios in which senior military officials might simply tell the president: ‘No, sir. We’re not doing that.’”
Ms. Brooks’ editorial comes as a recent poll by Public Policy Polling group found that 40 percent of registered voters support Mr. Trump’s impeachment.
In addition, 52 percent of voters polled said they would rather have President Obama in the Oval Office, opposed to the 43 percent who support the Trump presidency.
“Donald Trump’s making history once again with a sizeable share of voters already wanting to impeach him, and a majority of voters wishing they could have Barack Obama back,” Public Policy Polling Group President Dean Debnam said Thursday.
In the editorial, Ms. Brooks noted that Mr. Trump’s “thin-skinned, erratic, and unconstrained” approach to defense matters of defense could put top U.S. military leaders in a position where they would be forced to execute orders that may be “dangerously unhinged” from a basic understanding of national security.
“The prospect of American military leaders responding to a presidential order with open defiance is frightening — but so, too, is the prospect of military obedience to an insane order,” Ms. Brooks wrote.
“After all, military officers swear to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, not the president,” she added.
• Carlo Muñoz can be reached at cmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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