Via email from John Schussler who contributed his comments:
I have a feeling you are probably not thrilled with this, but some of your readers definitely are. I’d be very interested to see a post from you (and the comments to it) discussing the below. Seems to be making the rounds but I have yet to find the original post. Thus far there’s Reddit, plus X, plus others if you Google the first sentence
Then gave me the link Insurrection act — April 20th. Pls read! : r/Political_Revolution and the text below. I am also interested the comments of my readers.
I really wish there was a way to get this into the hands of every American before April 20th.
FROM THE MEDIUM:
Part 1: On April 20th, 2025, the United States may Cross the Point of No Return.
It sounds wild. Maybe even crazy. But every step is already in motion. I’d be happy to be wrong. But if this is correct… you’ll be ready.
On April 20, 2025, the United States may initiate its final steps into authoritarian rule.
That’s the day Donald Trump’s advisory committee is expected to release its findings on whether he should invoke the Insurrection Act — a move that would allow him to deploy the military domestically and allow Trump to impose martial law. (San Francisco Chronicle). Given Hegseth and Noem are the main “advisors”, the conclusion is foregone.
And as his two months in office has already shown, he won’t stop at just a legal opinion.
Expect an executive order even that same day or the next, officially declaring the Insurrection Act, restricting freedoms in the name of restoring control of the border and perhaps in blue-state cities, and setting the larger plan in motion.
Of course, this won’t be framed as an attack on democracy. It will be packaged as a necessary response to crisis — as authoritarian takeovers always are.
But once it happens, there’s no going back.
THIS WILL BE THE POINT OF NO RETURN.
The roadmap for overthrowing a democratic government isn’t new or theoretical — it’s a well-worn playbook, tested and repeated across history by those who crave power more than liberty. After rejecting it initially, being incredulous, I have realized there is too much evidence suggesting this may be what’s happening now to remain silent.
Telling other people what may be happening, so they can recognize it and maybe together we can stop it, is my entire purpose here.
This is Part 1 of what has turned into a series: Their Coup Playbook: How They Quietly Kill the Constitution in the Coming Weeks and Months
THIS IS HOW DEMOCRACY ENDS: HERE’S THEIR PLAYBOOK
It won’t all happen in one night.
Instead, the process will unfold in stages, each step making resistance harder.
Free elections, a free press, and the right to protest will disappear one piece at a time, until there’s nothing left to save.
My entire goal here is to make people aware, so you can recognize it, if it really is what’s happening, and maybe together we can help stop it. It’s all I, personally, can do.
Here’s how it will happen, step by step, after Trump invokes the Insurrection Act with an Executive Order:
1. “Resist!” Demonstrations Grow — Just As Planned
Left-leaning and even more centrist people will be alarmed. Peaceful protests will be organized nationwide, as they already have been being organized now, with growing numbers of people joining protests each week.
The calls to “Resist!” will grow louder, and large-scale demonstrations will begin forming in major cities.
This is exactly what Trump wants. He didn’t invoke the Insurrection Act sooner because he needed his opposition to gather first — so he could use them as a tool for his next step.
He also waited 90 days, instead of invoking it on Day 1 as Project 2025 recommended, so he would have his people in place, and remove those who would oppose them in the government, military, courts, and civil positions.
His cabal is waiting for a strong reaction — they want massive unrest. They need a justification to kick off the next steps in their plan.
2. The False Flag Crisis: Turning Protest into “Terror”
The protests will turn violent quickly. Maybe in a day, maybe during the next big protest the following weekend.
They will turn violent not because of the protesters, but because they will have been infiltrated by agents provocateurs, from militia groups like The Proud Boys, whose goal is to escalate as quickly as possible and give Trump and his cabal an excuse to trigger the next stage.
Expect “terrorist” bombings, targeted assassinations, or high-profile acts of violence, either staged or exploited, to justify the crackdown.
There may even be an extremely high profile assassination of a leading right-wing leader that changes everything in a moment… and the “woke radicals” will be blamed, and the country will rally around more extreme measures to bring back order and control.
The media will be flooded with images of chaos, pushing the public into a state of fear. Calls for “order” will follow.
3. Trump Declares Expanded Martial Law — And Calls for Militia to assist the police and Military
Trump has already invoked the Insurrection Act — so now he now declares even more extensive and repressive martial law, and orders troops into major US cities where most oppose him, branding protesters and opponents as “seditionists,” “traitors,” and the “woke mob”.
He will call on “good Americans” to grab their guns, like the patriots of 1776, and join the militias forming to “restore order” and “take back control” from the leftist threat. Using militias also gets him around resistance from military leaders who might oppose his orders.
The militias already exist — the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and others— and they are not some distant fringe. They were at January 6. The most extreme and radicalized are all released from prison now.They are ready to roll, and to answer Trump’s call, which they were waiting for four years ago.
The militia members are your neighbors. The difference between them and you? These neighbors own and have been training with AR-15s. You and your friends? Not so much.
This will be framed as “helping the police” and “keeping order.” Law enforcement will quietly welcome them — or, in some cases, will deputize them, with Trump’s support.
4. Mass Arrests of Opposition Leaders
Journalists, Democratic officials, and activists will be arrested under charges of sedition, terrorism, or “inciting violence.”
Expect Mark Milley, Liz Cheyney, and Adam Kinzinger to be arrested quickly and with great press coverage. How long the show trials take is probably a good measure of how much control Trump has established over the courts.
Key Democratic governors and attorneys general will be removed first, ensuring no state-level resistance.
Law enforcement and military ranks will be purged, with loyalty tests ensuring only Trump-aligned officers remain.
5. Military & National Guard Take Over Major Cities
Expect deployments in Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and other blue-state strongholds.
Curfews and lockdowns will be imposed, justified as measures to “restore peace.”
Checkpoints and military policing will become the new normal. Expect them in particular along major highways going to Canada or Mexico, and in red states — to identify and detain seditionists, traitors, and people of questionable loyalty.
Trump’s building of detainment centers in Guantanamo, and expansion of the 106 other ICE detention centers, was not actually intended for illegal migrants. And just a few days ago, Blackwater founder and Billionaire Erik Prince offered to help Trump “privatize deportation camps” as has been being done with prisons per Trump’s Day 1 Executive Order. So now Trump has an extrajudicial place to store the disloyal and those who resist, in for-profit camps guarded by militias and loyal military. Until he decides what to do with them.
6. Press Censorship & Total Media Control
Independent news outlets will face shutdowns or takeovers. Those that resist will see their journalists arrested or harassed.
Mainstream media will be forced into compliance. Blackmail, corporate pressure, and legal threats will ensure they toe the line.
Social media platforms like X (Twitter) will amplify the official narrative, drowning out opposition.
Other social media and lines of communication will be turned off. The Internet will be monitored, people identified from this monitoring for arrest, using Palantir technology. Peter Thiel, who I’ve written about before, is co-founder of Palantir. We will fully enter the surveillance state.
7. Borders Close & Dissidents Are Trapped Inside
Passports will be revoked for critics and opponents. If you’re on a list, you’re not leaving. Especially if you’re of Draft age.
No-fly lists will expand to include activists and journalists.
ICE and DHS will be weaponized — not just against immigrants, but against political enemies.
8. Elections Are “Postponed” Indefinitely
The 2026 midterms will be suspended under the excuse of national security concerns.
Red-state legislatures will eliminate Democratic-leaning districts, ensuring permanent Republican control.
By 2028, Trump (or his handpicked successor) will run unopposed. Elections will be a formality, probably still held. But rigged.
PROJECT 2025 AND THE INSURRECTION ACT: THIS WAS ALWAYS THE PLAN
This isn’t speculation.
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 lays out a detailed strategy for permanent right-wing control.
It openly advocates using the Insurrection Act to crush opposition and dismantle the administrative state.
Trump isn’t improvising — he’s following a script.
We Can’t Wait — The Time to Act Is Now
We can’t sit back and wait for Trump to fire the starting gun — because once he does, it will already be too late.
We need to prepare now.
We need to plan now.
We need to dismantle his plans before they begin.
We have one month.
That’s it.
The Only Way to Stop this Coup is by Exposing It
The only way I can think of to stop this conspiracy, which is in final planning stages, is through exposure.
If people see the playbook in advance, they will be less likely be manipulated when it happens.
They might question the narrative. “Wait. This is what they said would happen. I thought it was crazy. But maybe…”
We need to spread this narrative far and wide so that when the moment comes, no one can claim ignorance.
Maybe we will be proven wrong.
Maybe we will look silly.
Or maybe… we will have derailed the plan, by telling people what to look for, to recognize the playbook steps as (if) they happen.
Here’s what we must do before April 20:
Empower the press, law enforcement, military, and elected officials to recognize the game that’s being played. They need to understand what’s happening before they are pressured to go along with it.
Share this post, or write your own. Do your own research. Don’t take my word for it. Talk with your friends and family about this crazy conspiracy theory that can’t rally happen… can it? So if and when the steps actually happen, people recognize it for what it is.
Prepare the public so they don’t take the bait. Trump and his cabal want protests to explode into chaos.
They want violence in the streets to justify their crackdown. We must be ready to outmaneuver them — to refuse to be used as pawns in their game.
Stand up to the militias — and stop friends and family from joining them. The Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and other armed groups will be mobilized as Trump’s shock troops. They will be framed as “restoring order” and “helping the police.” We need to be ready to counter this, to make sure our neighbors, friends, and family don’t get sucked in.
Inoculate our fellow citizens against the propaganda. Most Americans are good people — but good people can be misled. They can be scared into compliance. Our job is to make sure they see what’s happening before it’s too late.
The only way to stop this plot is to expose it, reject it, and make it unmistakably clear to every American what is happening. We must stop these malign forces from enacting their will on our country, the world, and each of us and our families.
WHAT IF WE DON’T STOP IT?
If it is not stopped, and Trump enacts the Insurrection Act, at that point we probably only have 48 to 72 hours to try to stop everything from happening after the Executive Order.
Once martial law is imposed, there will be a tiny window — no more than three days — before resistance becomes nearly impossible.
Stopping it before it happens is the best option.
But what if we don’t?
In my next post, I’ll outline peaceful, strategic ways to resist — while we still can. And what our reduced options are if it still happens.
If we don’t act before April 20, then by April 23, it will already be too late. The next post lays out a concrete action plan — exactly what you can do to try to stop this.”
My first response was to ask Copilot. Copilot was not very helpful. I gave the same prompt to Grok and clicked the “DeepSearch” button. My prompt and the complete response are here. The conclusion and key citations:
Conclusion
The essay’s earliest posting was on March 21, 2025, on Medium, and its claims about the report and advisors have a factual basis in the January 20, 2025, executive order and the roles of Hegseth and Noem. However, broader predictions about authoritarian actions are speculative and lack evidence as of April 8, 2025. Given the sensitivity and controversy, these claims warrant careful monitoring as the report’s release approaches, with potential implications for U.S. governance and civil liberties.
Key Citations
My ten second thought response which I replied in email to John with was, “That is an incredibly detailed delusion.”
If you really want to dig deeper go to the bottom of the original post for the Full Series. There are five long posts on this topic. I did not read them all.
My more thoughtful response with the input from Grok (and lesser extent Copilot), and reading further is that this person, at best, has a vivid imagination. There are connections to reality, but these are only used to jump off into political nightmares which Democrats have been creating and sharing for years.
After spending decades dealing with someone with mental health issues, I see a lot of similarities. They touch reality and then claim far-fetched scenarios are what those touches with reality “really” mean.
You saw similar things with QAnon.
There are enough references to reality that the extrapolation is plausible. And if you are predisposed to belief of that scenario, such as listening to mainstream media for the last several years, then “it all makes sense.” And “belief” is relatively easy.
By picking and choosing the data to incorporate into their belief system they can create a nearly conflict free belief system. Here are some data points they did not take into account.
- In general, dictators increase controls rather than decrease them. This enables the easy prosecution and jailing of political opponents. It seems to me the Trump administration is decreasing controls.
- The Second Amendment. The Trump administration is a strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment. I do not believe there has ever been a dictator that allowed their political opponents access to arms.
- The Trump administration is tearing down government structures typically required for indoctrination and consolidating control. For example, the destruction of Department of Education gives more control to states. Indoctrination of the youth is a common component of all dictatorships I have studied. USAID is another means of control which I would expect to be reshaped rather than destroyed by a dictator.
These data points should be sufficient for a rational person to conclude the scenario foreseen by the poster is unlikely at best and probably a delusion or a carefully crafted post with an ulterior motive. My best guess at an ulterior motive is a desire for attention. My second-best guess is an attempt to create an immediate violent response to the Trump administration.
Prepare appropriately.
I sure there are more disconnects from reality, but I just don’t have the time right now to do more research and thinking on the topic. Please contribution in the comments.
