The latest round of navel-gazing is the effort to name what has happened to President Donald Trump.  It is a hoax or is it a coup, and when did it start? 

I am a 2003 graduate of the Naval War College.  We studied "war."  What happened to Donald Trump was an act of war.

"War is an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfil our will" (Clausewitz: On War).

President Barack Obama marshaled secret government resources across the intelligence and law enforcement communities and declared war on the civilian Donald Trump.  "Hoax" suggests a humorous or malicious deception.  "Coup" suggests a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government.  President Obama's actions were neither humorous nor malicious but were an egregious abuse of power of the Executive.  To say that what happened to President Trump was a coup d'état, an overthrow or a type of revolution, or an illegal and overt seizure by the military or other elites within the state apparatus, isn't adequate, either.

President Trump's enemies declared war on him for one reason and one reason only: vindictiveness.  Vengeance.  Who dares question the mighty O?  In the words of Hillary Clinton, at a speech in the nation's capital, referring to Trump, "For five years, he has led the birther movement to delegitimize our first black president" (italics mine).  Out of a population of 330 million people, only Donald Trump got Barack Obama to blink in an undeclared war that began when Citizen Donald Trump inquired about the president's citizenship.  Barack Obama was none too happy with the temerity of private citizen Donald J. Trump.  For questioning the mighty Obama's credentials, fellow Democrats and the media jumped to the president's defense.  From that moment, Obama, Washington Democrats, and the media have hated Trump with every fiber of their being.

Don't think or say, "They hate him because it's fun to hate Donald Trump" or any of that drivel.  The full force of the U.S. government's most powerful agencies was leveraged against Citizen, Candidate, and President Trump.  Politics becomes a blood sport when you cross the boss.  And this one is a blood vengeance.  Those who worshiped their messiah would have done and will do anything asked of them to see Donald Trump annihilated for daring to delegitimize our first black president.

Delegitimizing Obama was Trump's crime and the Democrat's rallying war cry, their call to arms.  Trump suspected that Obama was not the man he claimed to be.

If anyone took the time to research, the Democrats and the media declared war on Donald J. Trump before the 2012 elections, when he made some noises about running for president.  When he became a candidate in 2015, the Democrat-media complex conspired to render a slow and painful death by a thousand cuts.  Not scimitar-wielding Megyn Kelly asking Trump about his past derogatory comments about women.  Not Bret Baier sticking up for his debate partner's cutting questions.  No, paper cuts.  Manufactured dossiers.  Leaked memos.  Secret legal documents from FISA courts that in law enforcement circles have the greatest level of respectability and credibility.  You see, if you're going to kill someone with paper, "you have to do it by the book." 

Obama's army were the heads of the intelligence and law enforcement communities at the CIA, FBI, and DOJ.  Their weapon was counterfeit papers that cut as sharply and deeply as any executioner's knife.  The Clappers, Comeys, and Brennans knew exactly how to have secondary and tertiary sources plant stories in the media. 

This is exactly what enemies of the nation can expect when the intelligence community and law enforcement agencies are on them.  Destroy your reputation; ruin your life by leaking a story to the media.  And once a story is in the media, then law enforcement can "do their job" and investigate.  By the book.