Illustration by Michael DiMilo
By Geoff Carter
Some of us may remember Rod Serling’s classic 1964 political thriller Seven Days in May, a movie about a military plot to take over the United States government. Burt Lancaster stars as General James Mattoon Scott, a megalomaniac convinced that a new peace treaty between the USSR and the US would lead to disaster for America and so decides to align forces of the military and elements of Congress to stage a coup d’etat to take over the government.
Sound familiar? Actually, the plot of this feature film seems a lot more realistic and well thought-out than former President Donald Trump’s January 6th insurrection, which was no less a coup d’etat attempt than General Mattoon’s plot to usurp the American democracy. Mattoon Scott had created a secret elite military strike force, ECOMCON, to strike against the top levels of government in a closely coordinated attack.
On January 6th, 2021, Donald Trump brought together thousands of his followers, a motley collection of deplorables that included The Proud Boys, The Oath Keepers, garden variety white supremacists, MAGA fanatics, and others to disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election. Fortunately, as is Mr. Trump’s modus operandi, he didn’t seem to put much thought into the operation. It seemed as if he was hoping that the mob he had instigated would simply overrun the building and stop President-elect Joe Biden from taking power, but because of the sacrifice and valor of a few hundred Capitol policemen and women, all senators and representatives were kept safe.
The mob did breach the Senate Chamber, but the Vice-president was safely evacuated; however, the Capitol Building was vandalized, and personal effects of legislators were destroyed or stolen. One rioter was shot and killed as she tried to enter the House of Representatives. Several police officers lost their lives. Altogether, five people died as a result of the attack.
As bad as the January 6th riot was, imagine what might have happened if Donald Trump had launched a coordinated and well-planned strategy to take over the building. As it turns out, some of the rioters were armed, but thankfully, the mob did not open fire on the Capitol police or anyone else, but what if Trump had encouraged them to shoot, or—even worse—deployed military troops. He did attempt to enlist the National Guard to “protect” the demonstrators but refused to send them to help quell the riot.
The paramilitary group The Proud Boys did employ a military-like strategy to enter the Capitol, but there was no coherent plan to take over the government. It was simply, much like the Trump presidency, a collection of impulsive and thoughtless behaviors. Thanks mostly to General Mark Milley, the military refused to go along with Trump on many of his somewhat hare-brained schemes, including seizing voting machines in swing states.
If Trump loses in November, expect a replay of January 6th. He has already been crying wolf about Democrats stealing an election that hasn’t taken place yet. If he loses, he’s sure to try to seize power again. And he has learned his lesson—a crazed mob—rabid as they may be, will not be enough. The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and other extremist groups will help, but our greatest should be if Trump and the MAGA Republicans (and all the craven mainstream Republicans who refuse to stand up to him) decide to get a bigger stick. And there’s a few of them out there.
There are at least fifteen major private military corporations based in the U.S. Constellis, formerly known as Blackwater, for example, is a private military company—a PMC—contracted to provide security and support functions for the U.S. military. Mercenaries. Guns for hire. Constellis also runs several camps to provide their personnel military-type training. According to graydynamics.com, Triple Canopy, one of Constellis’ subsidiaries, not only provides automatic weapons like the M240 and MK18, machine guns to its members. It also utilizes body armor, state-of-the-art optics, Armored Personnel Carriers, Humvees, and even helicopters. Triple Canopy provides protective security services, site security and access control, as well as training.
Although many members of these companies are ex-military and stalwart patriots, it does not require a huge stretch of the imagination to think they might be contracted to supply “site security” services to various locations in D.C. or across the country. Their training sites might also be hired out to school far-right extremists in the finer points in the art of war.
Blackwater, the company which eventually evolved into Constellis, still has strong far-right roots. Its founder, Erik Prince had strong ties to the Trump Administration, and is the brother of Betsy DeVos, Trump’s Secretary of Education, whose extreme views condemning public education are well-documented. As late as 2017, Prince attended a Trump Tower meeting to discuss Iran policy. He later was allegedly part of an effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between the White House and the Kremlin.
One would hope that any American PMC, even one with ties to a man with close affiliations with Donald Trump, would not act against its own government. After all, some of these companies already have contracts with the CIA and other segments of the government, but Trump has dozens of multi-millionaires—and billionaire donors to pay for their services, and many of the thousands of members of the Oath Keepers are ex-military. And how many Americans, MAGA or not, were convinced by this man to attack their own Capitol Building on January 6th?
Constellis and its subsidiaries are reputable companies with long track records of good service, but they are contracted employees of the government. Should one of Trump’s feckless allies contrive to contract them to—say, protect the Capitol Building—where would we be?
Donald Trump has already tried once to force the military to do his bidding and failed, discovering that the men and women of the armed forces put their country above the desires of one megalomaniac, but later in his term, Trump realized he could populate the upper echelons of the military with his own people like General Flynn. And he will find people willing to do what he wants. If, or rather when, Trump decides to attack the Capitol Building again, to wrest the levers of power from the hands of the people, he will not speak softly, but he will be carrying a much bigger stick.
Donald Trump is a man who has hesitated at nothing to further his own perverted ambitions. If he finds a PMC willing to do what he wants, he won’t hesitate to use them to help execute his grand scheme for ultimate power. He would not—and will not—hesitate to start a Civil War.
In the film Seven Days in May, the plan to overthrow the American government was foiled by patriots who loved their country understood the importance of democracy. Let’s hope that this coming winter, fact will follow fiction.