There’s bad news and good news for members of the resistance: in an interview with Salon published Monday, Yale history professor Timothy Snyder says it’s “pretty much inevitable” that President Donald Trump will attempt to take full control of the government by staging or exploiting a national crisis and declaring a state of emergency.
However, Snyder also tells Chauncey DeVega that his gut feeling is that “Trump and his administration will try and that it won’t work. Not so much because we are so great but because we have a little bit of time to prepare.”
Historian Timothy Snyder: “It’s pretty much inevitable” that Trump will try to stage a coup and overthrow democracy https://t.co/D2SYuMvJKU
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) May 2, 2017
Despite 1,500 retweets or so, it doesn’t look like many people read the part of the interview where Snyder says Trump’s attempt to end American democracy will fail; in fact, many think the professor either is underselling the danger Trump poses or doesn’t realize the country doesn’t have close to a year to prepare.
@sarahkendzior First pieces of the plan are already in play, distrust of media, change laws to make singular control easier, it's happening already…
— Mike Bailey (@mbailey034) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior @Salon I am shocked that anyone thinks this isn't already happening. Comparisons to Germany 1930s are astounding. 1940s next?
— Jay Romero (@SpartanJayJay) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior I honestly would not put it past this administration to start a "Reichstag fire". In other words, what Snyder says isn't just hyperbole.
— DeepState (@RKJ65) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior He won't fail. Congress won't stop him
— In your dreams (@dragginflyy) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior @kharyp We have to stop him #TheResistance
— Ginger Parks (@Trueheartparks1) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior This puts a cold fear in the pit of my stomach
— AJ Mirblahle ? (@aj_mirabelle) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior @ActualEPAFacts This is the scariest thing I have read in a while, and that's saying quite a bit.
— Regina Vaughn (@singfourlife) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior Welp, have been terrified but this cemented the fact that no, I won't be sleeping tonight- again.
— T (@t_steinwald) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior @ActualEPAFacts The resistance will overthrow trump before that happens. The question is whether it will be peaceful or violent
— Aaron Wylam (@awylam) May 2, 2017
It’s sounding pretty violent, actually.
@sarahkendzior Whose side is the military on right now? That's the important question.
— PlasticSpoon (@PlasticSpoon) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior There are more of us than them! Military would be with us
— SalmonSuzy (@susan_erikson) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior @shareitarie10 Americans will not suffer tyrants. he starts a coup, he will learn the Second Amendment isn't just something he can use on his opponents.
— Patchouli Woollahra (@PatchouliW) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior If it's a coup it's gonna be him going down!
— Billie (@Trumpsapuppet1) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior @charles_gaba @Salon Hard to get my head around, but I'm seeing things every day I could never imagine. #RESIST, people!
— Wascallywose (@wascallywose) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior @Spider_Hunter @Salon What the HELL can I do today? How can I start the 25th today? Lawyers are the only ones to save us.
— Emmiezen (@EmergingCitizen) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior Operation Valkyrie anyone?
— Matt Ragusa (@Big_Ragooo) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior @Salon That article scared the sh%t out of me. We need to do something.
— Cheryl (@cheryl_brooks) May 2, 2017
Quick, somebody loop George Takei into this Twitter thread before it’s too late!
@sarahkendzior @ActualEPAFacts This.
Please RT@GeorgeTakei @ProgressOutlook @paladine #Resist— Allison Randall (@amrandall3514) May 2, 2017
It might be too late for even the guy who played Sulu on “Star Trek” a half century ago to help.
@sarahkendzior @ActualEPAFacts @chaunceydevega
WAKE UP folks, the coup has already happened.— Angela DeJulius (@angdejulius) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior The coup has already happened.
— Frederick Frank (@GaskinsJeffrey) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior Could the coup have already happened last year?
— DL (@mr_mistoffeIees) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior @wilw Overthrow? His constituents are handing him a coup on a silver platter.
— Shannon (@shannon7568) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior WHITE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
— charmaine ross-le (@LadyLe114) May 2, 2017
RUSSIAN PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@sarahkendzior Q I've been wanting to ask you, Sarah. If Trump colluded w/ Russia to win an undemocratic minority victory, did the coup already happen?
— Greg Nerese (@GregNerese) May 2, 2017
@GregNerese @sarahkendzior Valid…
— coffee lover (@WendyR305) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior Snyder is right on this, GOP has morphed into a true Fascist Party. GOP will NOT give up, nor handover, power w/o bloodshed.
— Remo D'Onofrio (@DOnofrioRemo) May 2, 2017
Of course the Republicans will never give up power without resorting to bloodshed — just look at the ferocity with which the GOP just this weekend agreed to keep funding Planned Parenthood and sanctuary cities through the fall in order to avert a government shutdown. Paul Ryan’s a monster, we tell ya.
@sarahkendzior I believe this was always the plan!! Reading this really makes me upset and infuriated at the same time
— Mary Kirwan (@kirwan5085) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior He's dangerous and crazy. The horrifying part is that he's been working on his plan all along, changing things slowly to catch us off guard
— Carol Murray (@dixiecrl7) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior And exactly what steps do you think Trump would take for that to happen?
— Sebastian Smith (@sebasti05915421) May 2, 2017
If someone in the Deep State could smuggle the plans out of the White House and into the hands of the resistance, that’d be a big help.
@sarahkendzior @wilw I think this is just a bit hyperbolic.
— knight driver (@the_undersore) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior Oh brother…there is so much wrong with this "inevitable" conspiracy that it would take many a tweet to catalogue it all.
— Nicholas Marritz ? (@stringquintet) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior @wilw That seems a bit more hyperbolic than a practical read of current events.
— Kirk Daniel (@KirkDanielNoS) May 2, 2017
@sarahkendzior LOL. You can't be serious.
— Joe Kehoskie (@joe_kehoskie) May 2, 2017
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Related:
Trump-triggered and unglued Rosie O’Donnell predicts how GOP’s ‘coup d’état’ will end https://t.co/JzNiqmkX6m
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) February 22, 2017