Operation Chaos: The Trump Coup Attempt and the Campaign to Erode Democracy

January 6, 2021, will live in infamy in American history, along with December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001, among other dates. For the first time in the country's history, a sitting president organized a violent mob to try to overturn a legitimate election.

Veteran journalist Kevin James Shay, who has worked in Washington, D.C., for almost two decades, poured over public documents from the FBI, police departments, federal, state, and local governments, and other government agencies. He reviewed hundreds of news articles, videos, broadcasts, studies, and reports, and interviewed sources himself. He analyzed posts on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media feeds. Approaching this story as a true crime tale involving chaotic deceit and deception that have been ongoing for years, he pieces together the underlying story that helps readers better understand how and why the tragedy occurred, uncovering fresh details and writing the story in a moving narrative that gives a big-picture, behind-the-scenes perspective.

His conclusion: Though Donald Trump and his insatiable urge to hold onto power were largely to blame for the Capitol attack, a variety of factors coalesced that day leading to an all-too predictable result. But he tries to go beyond engaging in a blame game to help figure out a path forward in hopes that something like this doesn't happen again.

Details of the circumstances related to the January 6 attack that many miss include there being eight associated deaths, not five; some Congress members like Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona did more to incite the violence than many thought, while others like Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri didn’t do as much as generally thought; the Operation Chaos ploy that Trump resurrected from a 2008 political dirty trick by the late Rush Limbaugh to attempt to subvert the Democratic Party's primaries; the increasingly bold plans for chaos that culminated with Operation Occupy the Capitol, which was a real campaign employed by grassroots GOP operatives at the general incitement of party leaders; the role of Black Lives Matter protests that were used by both Republicans and Democrats to score political points, as well as by infiltrators to further societal chaos; the behind-the-scenes ties between key Trump aides and violent, far-right groups; the leaderless tactics utilized to ensure that top party leaders will not face prosecution, causing mostly volunteer foot-soldier scapegoats to accept the legal risks.

One theme that emerges is it's clear that January 6 could have been so much worse. And chaos was the means to a political power play that involved subterfuge, approaching the level of the CIA’s Operation CHAOS against antiwar activists and Black Panthers in the 1960s and 1970s.

NOTE: This book contains profanity that is not bleeped out to maintain the subject matter's realism. It may not be suitable for those under 18.