What do these two moments from history tell us about our own civil-military relations and Milley’s fears of a coup? I would suggest that from both pragmatic and principled perspectives, we have less to fear from military participation in a coup than from paramilitary groups and civilians. This is not to say that our military is without problems, but there are a number of historical reasons to support optimism. The fact that Trump thought that these actions supported the troops is evidence of how out of touch he really was. Exit polls suggest that more Americans who have served in the military voted for Trump than for President Biden, but not overwhelmingly — military voters are no monolith.

Source: Washington Post July 16, 2021 14:48 UTC