It is extraordinary to have to ask the question: can Donald Trump somehow use United States’ armed forces to stay in the White House?  

However, as the current President today sacked his Secretary of Defense, continues to not recognise the election result, and has previously deployed force in domestic situations, it is a sad but valid question.  

Presumably, Trump would look for pretexts or rationalisations for further deployment of armed force – as most coups at least superficially do.  

There would of course first have to be some physical incident for Trump to act on, be it renewed violent demonstrations or take-over by protestors of property or institutions such...