From The Tablet

This article suggests the term “coup” for one specific event that happened this week.

Adam Smith, elected Democratic Representative and chair of the House Armed Services Committee, who called Donald Trump a “narcissistic psychopath”, told CNN that as Tuesday's riot unfolded, the Mayor of Washington DC talked directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense with the Vice President's approval, who was in contact with the Pentagon, the FBI and the Justice Department and who consulted leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives, including himself. Without reference to the President, they agreed to release the Washington DC National Guard to secure the Capitol and the capital city from rioters. That they did. But Mike Pence, as Vice President, has no authority whatever over the United States armed forces. He is not the Commander in Chief nor deputy Commander in Chief, a role that does not exist. He had in effect usurped the Presidency and assumed its powers under the Constitution. That is surely a coup. And the riot itself was in effect an insurrection. ...

So [in the last couple days] in the United States saw: (a) the election of two Democratic senators from Georgia, thereby handing control of the Senate to the same party of government that will, from January 20, control the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives; (b) the due process of confirming Joe Biden as the next President, who will be Chief Executive and Commander in Chief for four more years, (c) an egregious act of treason by a serving President and (d) a coup d'état that took place in the United States for the first, and let us earnestly hope, the last time.

What an epiphany! What a day!