Trump isn't the only far-right president to try his hand at overthrowing democracy; the question is what if any "lessons" he has learned from them

This country did the “unthinkable,” which was to forget the (recent) past and reward a man who weaponized the government against personal "enemies" and instigated an attempt at a violent overthrow of the U.S. government simply because he didn’t like the result of an election. Donald Trump justified his actions by insisting the 2020 election was “stolen,” but the real reason is that he a self-serving narcissist, megalomaniac, and most of all a sore loser. He is a man used to getting his own way, or ordering underlings to do to it his way, and by extralegal means if necessary—just don’t “quote” him on it, or you’re “fired.” 

But he will reward his “loyal” foot-soldiers, promising them that they will be pardoned for serving time in jail for crimes in which he personally is “immune” from consequence. Trump has even threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy the military to stymie mass protests against him. Whatever he does, we can't say we were not "warned." Trump, being a bit of a coward, will of course deploy his fanatical lieutenants to do most of his dirty work, just as Hitler's underlings performed his dirtiest dealings "in his name."

Nor should it come as a “surprise” that all of this is coming from the darkest corner of the radical right—not the “radical left.” In Russia, Hungary and Turkey we see the dictatorial impulses of the political right in “action,” stifling opposition both politically and in the press. More recently we saw an attempt at his in South Korea. The Korea Times reports 1 that in the aftermath of right-wing President Yoon Suk Yeol declaration of “martial law,” which he justified in a televised address because, according to him, the country “falling into the depths of national ruin” by “eliminating anti-state forces as quickly as possible and normalize the country.” 

Of course for a time the people would have to endure “some inconveniences.” However, the declaration failed to gain support from Yoon’s own party, and it lasted all of 6 hours before he was forced to call it off.

The reality was that Yoon was frustrated that his conservative agenda was being stymied by the opposition that controlled the legislature, and that he and his wife were being investigated for illegal election interference and accepting illegal gifts. Polls had previously shown Yoon’s approval rating dipping below 20 percent, and a new poll commissioned by the Korea Times indicated that 70 percent of respondents, like these protestors against Yoon…

 

…believe that he committed treason and should be removed from office. It probably shouldn’t come as a “surprise” that Yoon is an admirer of Trump, and although the whole thing started and was over before Trump woke up, we shouldn’t doubt that he would have been “interested” in how it would have all played-out, and see if he could learn any “lessons” from it. 

But the South Korean attempt at deposing a democratically-elected government and imposing personal dictatorship was chicken feed compared to the far-right machinations of Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro. He apparently learned some “lessons” from Trump’s failed insurrection, and decided to have an actual “plan.” First he followed Trump’s lead by sowing doubt in the “integrity” of the election before it happened. 

Thus Bolsonaro, aware of his weakness in polling, set-up a narrative of election fraud by inviting diplomats to a meeting in order to claim “vulnerabilities” in the voting system—and, should we be “surprised,” without evidence. After the 2022 election, it was declared that some voting devices made in “specific years” were defective and could have “permitted fraud.” Of course it was not suggested that Bolsonaro’s own prior election victory was the result of “fraud.” 

Again taking his cue from Trump, Bolsonaro rallied supporters to demonstrate on the street, who set up camps outside military sites to put “pressure” on the military to act to overthrow the election, and all else having failed, to engage in their own version of January 6, this time on January 8, 2023, in which Bolsonaro supporters engaged in carnage in the National Congress, the Supreme Court and the palace where the president works, not where he or she resides.

But as an investigation by the Federal Police indicates, this was what was happening in “public”; behind the scenes, something much more sinister was in the works. Bolsonaro and his cronies had plans for assassination and a coup de tat that only went awry when two heads of the military got “cold feet.” As summarized in the leading newspaper in Brazil, O Globo 2 , the December 2022 plot involved the murders of president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as well as Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, and Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. 

This was to conducted by a "black ops" group made up of special forces military personnel; Bolsonaro’s involvement was confirmed with the participation of Mauro Cid, his aide-de-camp who handled the provision of money and making “arrangements.”

One of the group involved in the kidnapping of Moraes, Major Oliveira, attending a meeting at the executive workplace, the Planalto Palace, when it appears that Bolsonaro was also present. Another Bolsonaro lieutenant, Mario Fernandes, produced a document called the "Green and Yellow Dagger”—the “operational plan” for the coup attempt, including a list of weapons, such s pistols, rifles, grenade launchers, and rocket launchers. According to the Federal Police, the list of high caliber weapons indicated an operation under the control of the military.

General Mário Fernandes was one of the military leaders who got “cold feet,” He is reported to have spoken “personally” with Bolsonaro, suggesting he was “concerned” about the camps being established outside military barracks, which made the appearance of an imminent coup attempt more obvious. In early December, Bolsonaro met with General Estevam Caos Teophilo to come up with a decree to justify a coup, and would include the commandeering of the Superior Electoral Court, with the obvious intent of finding “election fraud.”

On the day of Lula’s inauguration, it appears that Cid and another plotter and Bolsonaro confidante, Marcelo Câmara, appear to be expecting something to happen, but that "The guy is scared," perhaps meaning a would-be assassin of Lula, Alckmin and Moraes. The plotters had not yet given up, however. Cid sent a message to Câmara if "anything" was happening. It was indicated that Moraes movements were still being tracked. Lula was referred to as the election “thief.” It was suggested that the “black ops” group was “moving into position” for something on December 15. 

Whatever was planned was ordered “aborted.” What was intended to happen was a military-led coup in which a junta government under something called the “Institutional Crisis Management Office” would be created, “justified” by Article 142 of the Brazil Constitution, which in fact had little to do with defining what was happening.

Meanwhile, instead of vacating the presidential palace for the incoming president, Bolsonaro refused to leave, apparently in the hopes that “something” would happen that would allow him to remain. The January 8 insurrection by his supporters caused a lot of damage but otherwise did not convince the military to step in with its support. Whether the “black ops” was involved in instigating the insurrection is still subject to question.

The Federal Police report claims that the failure of Bolsonaro’s coup was “due to circumstances beyond his control.” That included "then-Army commander, Gen. Marco Antônio Freire Gomes, and the Army High Command rejected the use of ground forces to provide the necessary support.” It was reported that only Navy commander Adm. Almir Garnier actually gave the coup his unwavering support. 

But despite the obvious involvement of top military leaders in even discussing a coup attempt, only Garnier, Defense Minister Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, and Bolsonaro were initially indicted who had connection with the military, being that there was fear of antagonizing it. But since then the full import of the military's involvement has led to further indictments.

In fact Gomes, rather than being a "hero" in support of democracy, was fully involved in  supporting the encampments and pro-Bolsonaro protests, and thus enabled the January 8 uprising. It was noted that of the High Command’s 16 four-star generals in regard to a coup, “Five don’t want it, three want it a lot and the others are in a comfort zone”—meaning that whatever happened (and it would have if the troops had left the barracks to join the insurrectionists)—then the whichever side “won” the fence-sitters would join.

So are you glad we live in a country where such things are “impossible”? I mean, did you already forget January 6 and how Trump is going to let all those people loose on the world again? I mean a majority of people in this country knew they elected as a president a man who freely admitted he would play “dictator” for a day, which in reality means whatever he does that day won’t end on that day, that Trump will have a stock of cronies who will not advise him to follow the law or the Constitution, but will themselves be eager to exercise their own unfettered power based on their own crazed beliefs. 

But Trump himself is man who recognizes no “guardrails” to the power he has been allowed to control. He will not merely be like The Wizard of Oz who is revealed to be a phony façade to scare the hell out of people, when behind the curtains he is nothing but a weak little man who controls the leavers. Those leavers are dangerous for a fool to control, but we are talking about a man who wants to use those tools to destroy his “enemies”—anyone who dares to tell him “no.”