@maya_teaches · 17 Jan 2026 · 22:40
Today I removed five officials from the Department of Defense who decided that their signature was more important than my order.
— Written statement, the White House
The five had entered statutory non-compliance findings under Section 1250A, which bars Department funds for a NATO withdrawal without Congressional authorisation. The statute was never repealed, never litigated, and never complied with.
"They were not elected. I was."
I teach civics. That sentence is the argument every strongman in the textbook makes, word for word, in every language, and my students are going to hear it tonight from their own president.
I have to teach the chapter on checks and balances on Thursday. I do not know how.
Or — and hear me out — unelected officials spent six days blocking the Commander in Chief and he removed them, which is a power he has always had and every president has used.
You are allowed to hate it. Calling it a coup because the paperwork went the way you did not want is exactly why nobody trusts civics teachers.
I did not say coup. I said the sentence is the argument.
And you are right that he has the power. That is the actual problem and it is the thing I have to explain on Thursday: that a lot of what holds a country together is not a law, it is five people deciding not to sign something, and that it turns out you can just fire the five people.
The General Counsel, the Comptroller, and the Judges Advocate General of three services are escorted out of the building by 16:00. Acting loyalists take the disbursement desks. The…