Some among America's military allies believe Trump deliberately attempted a coup (opens in new tab)

The people who came in armed and with zip-tie flex cuffs, what were they attempting to do?

https://nypost.com/2021/01/07/us-capitol-police-officer-dies...

If you can't tell this is a coup, then it might be your first -- the punchline from: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/12/trumps-far...

Riots are sudden, violent and illegal. This was a riot organized to specifically stop the transfer of power. Only the characteristic "sudden" is doubtful; this coup was organized in the open, without the usual element of surprise.

But this did involve the storming of a legislature in session in a obvious attempt to thwart the proceedings in a power grab. It was poorly organized but seemed premeditated on the part of many participants.

So that heavily implies that whatever their methods, the intention was to get them to ignore the democratic process and confirm trump instead

> One NATO source set the stage, using terms more commonly used to describe unrest in developing countries.

"The defeated president gives a speech to a group of supporters where he tells them he was robbed of the election, denounces his own administration's members and party as traitors, and tells his supporters to storm the building where the voting is being held," the NATO intelligence official said.

"The supporters, many dressed in military attire and waving revolutionary-style flags, then storm the building where the federal law-enforcement agencies controlled by the current president do not establish a security cordon, and the protesters quickly overwhelm the last line of police.

"The president then makes a public statement to the supporters attacking the Capitol that he loves them but doesn't really tell them to stop," the official said. "Today I am briefing my government that we believe with a reasonable level of certainty that Donald Trump attempted a coup that failed when the system did not buckle."

The insurrectionists/rioters were not simply attempting to disrupt the vote. Many of them explicitly posted on social media about intending to kill members of congress. The woman who was shot and died, Ashli Babbitt, said on social media the day before, that “Nothing will stop us. They can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours …. dark to light!” The Storm is an explicit QAnon conspiracy forecast event where Trump / his supporters would conduct mass executions of the democrats and his opponents.

Similarly, many of the insurrectionists were explicitly looking for Mike Pence in the Capital. They had weapons, they had zip ties for detaining people, several had pipe bombs. If they would have found any of their targets (or the full group of lawmakers on lockdown) and a hostage / execution scenario began, that would have created a power vacuum / level of chaos that could have opened the door to Trump trying to stay in power.

So this was clearly a coup attempt -- a pathetic one that wasn't well executed. But the folks who stormed the building were explicit in their motivations -- to stop the legitimate functioning of government, to foment revolution, and to force the world to keep Trump in power.

One person was shot by police. As for the other three:

"One adult female and two adult males appear to have suffered from separate medical emergencies, which resulted in their deaths," Contee said. "Any loss of life in the District is tragic and our thoughts are with anyone impacted by their loss."

At least one one those medical emergencies was simply a heart attack. And possibly another from an accidental fall from scaffolding, though the article says police were unclear. Doesn't sound like violence had anything to do with them, at least directly. If it did, I'd expect that to be made clear.

Trump is currently not mentally-ill enough to be unfit for the Presidency. Of course, that's decided at the Capitol, so it may change after he directed violence toward it.

And Fox News agrees with other outlets about the circumstances of five deaths.

This article is about NATO contemplating what it would mean to bring financial sanctions against the USA under the circumstances of a successful coup.