An Executive Coup

Since the adoption of the United States Constitution, America has functioned as a constitutional republic ruled by law. However, that form of government is now being replaced - at least in part, and for the time being - by a coup: an executive coup.

While we typically associate coups with a military takeover of the presidency, the opposite is equally a coup.

From the French “coup d’état,” meaning “stroke of state,” a coup is understood to be an illegal seizure of government or its power.

While the President of the United States is indeed the “commander in chief of the Army and Navy” (US Constitution, Article II, Section 2), the authority to send that military into hostilities through a declaration of war is vested in Congress alone (Article I, Section 8).

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 clarifies the limitations placed on the President as commander-in-chief. Under that resolution, he may introduce forces into hostilities pursuant only to either:

1. A declaration of war.
2. Specific statutory authorization.
3. A national emergency created by an attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.

On February 28, 2026, President Donald J. Trump ordered the United States military to attack a sovereign country for the purpose of killing its leaders and toppling its government. This is an overt act of full-scale war initiated without a Congressional declaration, without statutory authorization, and without an attack upon the United States.

In other words, this is an illegal seizure by the President of the nation’s military and an unauthorized use of its power. As such, it constitutes a coup - an executive coup.

Yes, many unconstitutional acts have been committed by past Presidents and Congresses, but this is on another level.

For the better part of a century, Congress has funded ever-expanding numbers of unconstitutional or extra-constitutional bureaus, agencies, and programs. Yet most of those could be undone tomorrow with limited lasting damage simply by returning to the Constitution and defunding those institutions.

President Biden overstepped his constitutional limits by bombing Yemen without Congressional authorization, and Obama did likewise by signing kill lists. While these actions were also unlawful in principle, they were far more limited in scope. In contrast, the attack on Iran is a full-scale war against a sovereign state and its people via the wholesale co-opting of the entire US military being used at the President’s sole discretion - a war quickly escalating into a regional conflict with the potential to go global.

To decry President Trump’s unauthorized attack on Iran without equally condemning the actions of Biden and Obama is hypocrisy. To have condemned Biden and Obama while now turning a blind eye to the actions of Mr. Trump is gross hypocrisy.

We, the people of the United States, delegated to Congress the sole responsibility and exclusive power to raise and fund a military and to determine when to send it to war by Congressional declaration.

The office of the President is an executive one. By definition, it exists to “execute” the laws passed by Congress and to administer the government. The President does not own the military nor independently control its mission; he commands it only in carrying out duties authorized by Congress.

For the President to use the military to initiate hostilities without Congressional authorization is to seize and wield an arm of government not granted to him by we the people. It is usurpation of a power not delegated, a subversion of the Constitutional contract between the people and our government, and thus it is treachery. It is a coup - an executive coup.

As egregious as the actions of the President may be, I find the actions of Congress more damning.

The President is only one man. Ever since Satan gained access to the spiritual atmosphere of this planet to minister thoughts of the sin nature to the minds of men, individuals have fallen prey to various temptations, including pride, the lust for power, and warmongering.

However, Congress is a body of 535 individuals, each having sworn an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” That includes defending it against a coup, even an executive coup.

It is the sworn duty of every member of Congress to demand that the President stand down from his unauthorized attack on Iran or face impeachment followed by swift removal from office for having seized and wielded power not granted to him by we the people. Instead, Congress has gone on record as rejecting its Constitutional duty. Recently, all but three Republicans voted against a bill that sought to rein in the President and limit his actions in Iran, thus making Republicans the party of the coup.

Despite my usual high regard for the military, I am grieved to find its leadership also consenting to this coup.

Before such an attack was initiated, it was the duty of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to advise the President that he lacked congressional authorization to wage war. When the order was given, it became the duty of senior military leaders to refuse compliance with an unlawful order and, if necessary, resign their posts rather than carry it out. Sadly, many of our generals and admirals appear to have chosen to become yes men for the President rather than fulfill their oath to support and defend the Constitution.

Yet perhaps my greatest concern is for what we call the political right, that entity which sits in front of Fox News, cheering anything and everything done in the name of the “R” brand, regardless of Biblical morals or Constitutional limits. Does the right understand the precedent their silence and tacit consent are setting?

If the next President, presumably a Democrat, issues an order to bomb every church in America, we will have already consented to the idea of the President having the power to order the military to do anything he wants without regard for the wishes of Congress or the Constitutional rule of law. That may sound absurd and unthinkable, but if it happens, those who remain silent now will have forfeited the moral authority to register a complaint then, as they have already consented to the coup and its unlawful acquisition of power.

The loss of control over our military and its seizure by the executive branch is something a country does not readily recover from. Even if a future generation chooses leaders who return to their Constitutionally prescribed duties and limits on power, the death and destruction wrought in the interim cannot be undone.

The framers of our Constitution required that Congress hear and consider the necessities of war to ensure that it is the last resort left to us for the preservation of American lives, liberty, and property. To do less is to risk the lives of American soldiers and possibly the shedding of innocent blood abroad, on the whims of one man.

It’s not too late to stop the madness and return to the rule of law. If not, then it was nice being a Constitutional republic while it lasted. Welcome to the executive coup.