The Hypocrisy of Trump’s Election Interference Conspiracy. “Obama’s Year-Long Coup against President Trump”
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In an effort to draw attention away from the Epstein scandal, President Trump has initiated an effort to prosecute figures in the Obama administration for allegedly engaging in a conspiracy to subvert Trump’s 2016 election victory and undermine his administration. According to Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), and a press release from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI),
“Obama and his national security cabinet members manufactured and politicized intelligence to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump.”
The ODNI document argues top National Security Council Principals in the Obama administration (James Clapper, John Brennan, Susan Rice, John Kerry, Loretta Lynch, Andrew McCabe, and others) created an Intelligence Community (IC) assessment at odds with previous assessments that concluded Russia was not attempting to influence the 2016 election through “cyber means.” The DNI accuses the Obama administration of creating a new IC assessment “per the President’s request” that details the “tools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the 2016 election.” It went on to say, “ODNI will lead this effort with participation from CIA, FBI, NSA, and DHS.”
“The effect of what Pres. Obama and his senior national security team did was subvert the will of the American people, undermining our democratic republic, and enacting what would be essentially a years-long coup against Pres. Trump,” Gabbard tweeted on July 20.
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Foreign interference in US elections is nothing new. Not long after the establishment of the republic, in 1796 following the retirement of George Washington, France released a series of diplomatic notes that were published in a Philadelphia newspaper urging Americans to vote for the “Francophile” Thomas Jefferson and reject John Adams, and thus prevent a war between Great Britain and France. The scheme did not work and Adams was elected.
During the election of 1812, President James Madison misused public funds to obtain incriminating evidence on his political opponents. Madison attempted to use information provided by a “French con artist” to defeat the Federalists who supported Great Britain and opposed Revolutionary France.
“Republics are uniquely exposed to foreign meddling because we allow our citizens liberties—notably, free speech—that foreign powers exploit,” notes historian Tyson Reeder, assistant professor of history at Brigham Young University.
US History of Election Intervention, Regime Change, and Coups
Meddling in US elections, either by foreign agents or opponents within the federal government, pale in comparison to efforts by the US to influence elections in other countries.
“US interventions in the political affairs of other nations have always been morally and politically justified as part of the faith in the doctrine of spreading American-style democracy, but the actual reason was of course the spread of capitalism and the dominance of business rule,” writes Noam Chomsky.
Employing covert action, propaganda, the work of non-governmental organizations, and supporting opposition candidates, the United States had, between 1946 and 2000, intervened in more than 80 foreign elections, according to a database assembled by Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon University.
This does not include military coups and regime change operations in response to the election of candidates opposed by the United States. Beginning in 1953, the CIA orchestrated coups and regime change operations in Iran, Guatemala, Chile, Panama, and dozens of other nations.
“Despite its name, the Central Intelligence Agency’s main purpose is, and has always been, carrying out covert operations involving economic warfare, rigged elections, assassinations and even genocide,” writes author Mark Zepezauer.
The late Steve Kangas compiled a list of attempted and successful CIA regime change operations. In addition to the above mentioned regime change operations, Kangas documents similar efforts in North Vietnam, Hungary, Laos, Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, the Congo, Brazil, Indonesia, Greece, Bolivia, Uruguay, Cambodia, Australia, Angola, Afghanistan, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras.
“The CIA justifies these actions as part of its war against communism,” Kangas wrote in 1997. “But most coups do not involve a communist threat. Unlucky nations are targeted for a wide variety of reasons: not only threats to American business interests abroad, but also liberal or even moderate social reforms, political instability, the unwillingness of a leader to carry out Washington’s dictates, and declarations of neutrality in the Cold War. Indeed, nothing has infuriated CIA Directors quite like a nation’s desire to stay out of the Cold War.”
Following revelations of illegal CIA activity by the Church Committee in the 1970s, US regime change operations were shifted in 1983 to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an “independent, nonprofit, nongovernmental grantmaking organization dedicated to strengthening democratic institutions and values around the world,” according to the organization’s website.
In 1991, one of the founders of NED, Alan Weinstein, said: “A lot of what we do was done 25 years ago covertly by the CIA.” NED influences civil society, media, and business groups, supports favored politicians or parties, monitors elections, and aids human rights groups—in short, directly intervening in the domestic affairs of foreign nations. Moreover, the organization sponsors color revolutions, most recently directed against Ukraine’s pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych.
“NED activists employed a broad public relations strategy that included: a) busing paid out-of-town protesters into Kyiv; b) creating an online TV protest station and agitation paraphernalia; and c) providing offshore training to the anti-Yanukovych student leadership,” writes Jeremy Kuzmarov. “The strategy was based on the writings of Gene Sharp and a template that the NED had successfully employed in Serbia with a youth group called ‘Otpor,’ which helped secure the defeat of socialist Slobodan Milosevic in September 2000 elections.”
In addition to interfering in Ukraine and Serbia, NED has organized color revolution efforts in Poland, Georgia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Algeria, and Bolivia. Additionally, the organization that replaced the CIA
- Meddled in Hong Kong’s election.
- Interfered in China’s internal affairs.
- Allocated millions of dollars to offset domestic politics in Russia (this resulted in Russia declaring NED an “undesirable organization”).
- Created political instability in Belarus.
- Interfered in Mongolia’s parliamentary elections.
- Spent $13 million to “monitor” a constitutional referendum in Kyrgyzstan.
- Stirred up protests in Thailand.
- Incited opposition parties in Nicaragua to seize power by force.
- Continued to fund anti-Cuba forces.
- Interfered in Venezuela’s internal affairs after the election of Hugo Chávez (more recently, NED supported and trained Juan Guaidó).
- Orchestrated a violent coup and regime change in Haiti.
- Interfered in Uganda’s presidential election by supporting the opposition leader.
(See “Fact Sheet on the National Endowment for Democracy,” MLToday, May 16, 2022.)
The Regime Change Hypocrisy of President Trump
The claim Democrats attempted to undermine the election of Donald Trump ignores the fact President Trump is an advocate of regime change in other countries, most notably Iran.
On his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump wrote on June 22,
“It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!”
Trump posted his regime change proposal after Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected calls for unconditional surrender following US strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites—Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The attack on these sites represent a direct violation of Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution. The power to declare war is vested in Congress, not the Executive. The president of the United States, whose powers are separately enumerated in Article II, lacks the legal authority to initiate a war on his own.
During his previous tenure as president, Trump, through his neocon advisers (national security adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Vice President Mike Pence) advocated for regime change in five countries, primarily in Latin America. The primary target was Venezuela, followed by Nicaragua and Cuba, which Bolton dubbed the “troika of tyranny.”
Trump also brought his regime change agenda to Africa. In December, 2018, following the presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Trump employed “gunboat diplomacy” to disrupt the Congolese vote. After dispatching troops to Gabon in West Africa, the US attempted to install former ExxonMobil executive Martin Fayule and defeat the moderate leftist opposition candidate, Etienne Tshisekedi.
“Using the same tactics as employed against Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, and other countries, the neocons are threatening the DRC with visa denials, sanctions, and other measures against key members of the new government of President Tshisekedi,” Wayne Madsen wrote at the time.
Finally, it can be argued Trump is also interested in “regime change” in America.
“The coup is real,” writes John Feffer. “But it’s all about Trump transforming American governance from within and expanding executive power to the max. It’s not Trump vs. the ‘deep state.’ It’s Trump vs. the state, full stop.”
The Trump administration effort to impose regime change on Iran and other nations during both his terms makes a mockery of his current effort to prosecute and imprison Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton for a “years-long coup” against him after the 2016 election. It is a glaring example of rank hypocrisy and also an obvious attempt to divert attention away from his broken promise to release the names of world leaders, government officials, attorneys, billionaires, business magnates, celebrities, hedge fund managers, and philanthropists allegedly involved with the pedophile and possible Mossad blackmail operative Jeffrey Epstein.
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Kurt Nimmo is a journalist, author, and geopolitical analyst, New Mexico, United States. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
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