[jmye]

I’m not following. Are you suggesting that Hegseth, maybe the second dumbest person to ever hold a cabinet position, is plotting a coup?

I also don’t follow how getting rid of “disloyal people” (given prior patterns, not as a comment on these moves specifically) would precede a Türkiye-style “coup”, either.

[jfengel]

It wouldn't be Hegseth against the President. It would be an auto-coup, where the President forcibly remains in power.

The President is not about to leave office, but there is a very good chance that his allies will lose control of Congress. And he has hinted that he is willing to use the military to prevent that. If so, he might have told Hegseth to install a Chief of Staff who would implement those orders.

This is conjecture, of course. It's more likely a personal disagreement, apparently over a promotions list. (Hegseth wanted every non-white-man removed from the list.) But there have been just enough hints of an auto-coup to bring about speculation like that.

[jmye]

Ahh, I understand what you're saying. I guess I wonder if he cares about control of Congress, given the SC ruling in Trump V United States?

> apparently over a promotions list

Not at all surprising.

[jfengel]

Things are easier with Congress staying out of his way. If he loses Congress he'll roll with it, splashing around lots of accusations of election fraud and generally flooding the zone with poop.

In pursuit of... honestly I cannot say. I get the impression that the act itself makes him happy. He doesn't really seem to have many goals beyond that, aside from some sordid money-grubbing.