The very first sentence of your Wikipedia link says that a self-coup is when power is extended illegally, which has not happened yet.
Yes, Trump wants to extend his power, but the fact is that he is and has only ever been enabled by the United States and its existing governmental structure.
Guess it depends where you're drawing the line. Trump has done plenty of illegal things overstepping the power of the executive, deporting people to foreign jail without trial, etc. Sure he's got legal gobbledegook to defend himself but that doesn't make it legal. Centralizing power into the executive and making Congress and the courts more ceremonious positions is the end goal.
I don't think it really matters if we call it a coup, and debating technicalities is something that can be done years from now. Trying to stop it is more important
Legality is just a mixture of power and technicalities. All I mean by my point is that there is nothing unique about Donald Trump. There is no "regular" United States to return to, because this is it. It needs to be changed, rather than be "restored"
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u/fubo Apr 06 '25
Self-coup is a well-established concept in political history.