A Neoreactionary Coup?
In this article, I am compiling all of the evidence I can find in a concise format, so that you can do the research and come to your own conclusions. Whether or not there is an explicit plan for a hostile takeover, I think all Americans should be alarmed at what is happening under the current administration. This is a living document that I’ll be updating as events unfold.
Preface
Our government was designed to have a balance of power among 3 branches - executive, legislative, and judicial - each with specific roles and limitations as laid out in the Constitution. This is not a Democrat versus Republican issue, or even a liberal versus conservative one. It is the underlying structure of our government which has afforded us with tremendous liberties.
By now, a number of people are alarmed at a particular alignment of ideas and individuals which now appear to have access to the highest levels of our government. These people are referred to as “neoreactionaries”, and the movement is dubbed the “dark enlightenment”. The philosophical underpinnings of this movement are largely grounded in the work of a man named Curtis Yarvin, and its most prominent followers appear to be Silicon Valley elites such as Peter Thiel. Peter Thiel funded the Senate race of J. D. Vance, launching him onto the national stage and ultimately the Vice Presidency. Gil Duran has been covering this movement, and now more mainstream outlets are also paying attention. Most recently, a memo authored by anonymous “former Silicon Valley and US technology leaders” has also been published by the Byline Times, warning of a hostile takeover of the US government by Elon Musk in close alignment with the ideas of Yarvin.
The connections between Yarvin, Thiel, Vance, and Musk
Peter Thiel and Elon Musk merged their online banking companies, PayPal and X, in 2002. (As an anecdote, I worked at a company with an engineer who was previously a founding member of PayPal and worked in an office with both Thiel and Musk. Thiel, Musk, my former coworker, and a few others are now known colloquially as the “PayPal Mafia”.)
Yarvin is quoted as saying of Thiel, “He’s fully enlightened. Just plays it very carefully.”
We can safely conclude that Thiel, Yarvin, and Vance are more than just idealogically aligned acquaintances. Musk is a little bit harder to pin down, but his relationship with Thiel is well established. As discussed below, he is actively dismantling Federal agencies in accordance with Yarvin’s philosophy, and is also staffing DOGE with former Thiel Fellowship recipients.
Who is Curtis Yarvin?
Curtis Yarvin is a computer programmer who dropped out of a computer science PhD program at UC Berkeley to work full time in Silicon Valley at the peak of the dot com boom. He developed the decentralized computing platform Urbit and co-founded a company (with investment from Thiel) to oversee that project. His claim to fame, however, is as a blogger who went by the pseudonym Mencius Moldbug. Since being outed by TechCruch in 2013, Yarvin has continued to promote his ideas under his real name, eventually starting a new blog called Gray Mirror. The term “dark enlightenment” has been coined to in reference to his ideas, which he would describe as neoreactionary.
I have listened to hours of Curtis Yarvin in interviews and podcasts. I would recommend starting with this recent New York Times interview if you are curious, and a quick YouTube search will give you plenty of other options. For those of you who just want to get the gist of it, here are some themes of his philosophy:
Yarvin is an avowed monarchist. More specifically, he believes the US should be run like Apple or Google, with an all powerful CEO and a rigid hierarchy.
He coined the term the Cathedral to refer to academia plus the media. He believes these institutions have been infiltrated by leftist ideology, and they must be dismantled as they are an obstacle to his agenda.
He coined the acronym RAGE, which stands for Retire All Government Employees. He believes the federal beuracracy is also infiltrated by a leftist agenda, and must be demolished.
In 2022, Yarvin describes a sort of hypothetical roadmap for Trump to take dictatorial power in his second term. (It is not well fleshed out as he does not seem to believe it will actually work, since Trump is too weak.) In this roadmap he suggests that Trump should appoint a more competent CEO to take action on his behalf:
Trump himself will not be the brain of this butterfly. He will not be the CEO. He will be the chairman of the board—he will select the CEO (an experienced executive). This process, which obviously has to be televised, will be complete by his inauguration—at which the transition to the next regime will start immediately.
For Trump, being President will be exactly like it was—all the photo-ops and more—without any papers to sign, “decisions” to “make,” etc. The CEO he picks will run the executive branch without any interference from the Congress or courts, probably also taking over state and local governments. Most existing important institutions, public and private, will be shut down and replaced with new and efficient systems. Trump will be monitoring this CEO’s performance, again on TV, and can fire him if need be.
The Memo
A memo, published by the Byline Times and authored by “former Silicon Valley and US technology leaders” who are “former followers of the neo-reactionary movement”, was released Feb 7, just after I started drafting this article. I am placing an excerpt from the document below. You are also welcome to read it yourself.
Following President Trump’s Executive Order establishing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), many have been shocked by the speed and scope of changes led by Elon Musk. While DOGE in theory aligns with longstanding conservative ambitions, the reality is that Musk has not limited government or dismantled the deep state; he has replaced it with himself. Under his radical restructuring of federal power, the White House is at risk of becoming captive to Musk’s demands. This memo outlines four alarming developments that transcend partisanship.
Musk-aligned operatives have seized control of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), purging career civil servants and installing loyalists with ties to Musk’s private ventures.
DOGE has deployed unvetted hires—many under 25 years old—who now wield de facto control over sensitive government functions without security clearances. These individuals, drawn from Musk’s orbit and Silicon Valley’s neo-reactionary (NRx) network, operate without legal oversight or accountability.
DOGE has gained read-write access over Treasury pipes and federal payment systems, granting Musk direct influence over the financial infrastructure of the U.S. government. This unprecedented control over money flows creates a national security risk and a personal power lever for Musk.
The congressionally mandated divestment of TikTok has been delayed, with reported Chinese interest in Musk as a buyer. If successful, Musk would control not just X (formerly Twitter) but also the largest platform shaping youth political discourse—further concentrating his influence over public opinion.
Rather than operating as an ally of the Trump administration, Musk has hijacked its ambitions for his own purposes. His rapid takeover of federal infrastructure mirrors the broader ambitions of the neoreactionary (NRx) movement—a small group of Silicon Valley elites who reject democracy and seek to install a "CEO Monarch" to rule by technological and financial dominance. This network includes Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Balaji Srinivasan, David Sacks, and Curtis Yarvin, among others. Once considered fringe, purveyors of this ideology have now been embedded into the core of government operations.
Alignment of the Trump Administration with the Neoreactionary Movement
Retire All Government Employees (RAGE)
1/20/25 - Reclassification of Federal employees under Schedule F. This removes their civil protections and allows them to be fired for disloyalty.
1/28/25 - “Fork in the Road” email (which was clearly authored by Musk), offering pay until 9/30 for all Federal employees who resign by 2/10.
1/2/25 - DOGE gains access to a sensitive Treasury payment system. As of 2/8, a judge has blocked this for at least one week.
2/3/25 - USAID targeted to be shut down by Trump and Musk.
Dismantling The Cathedral
In addition to Curtis Yarvin’s commentary on dismantling/reclaiming the Cathedral (academia and the media), J. D. Vance ended a speech by quoting Nixon saying, “Professors are the enemy.”
1/14/25 - Rumors of Musk potentially buying TikTok. The whistleblower memo has highlighted this as an imminent threat, as the richest man in the world would control two major social media platforms in addition to having unrestricted access to Federal systems. However, as of 2/9, Musk is now saying he is not interested.
1/22/25 - NIH communications freeze which created a backlog of grants which would have been reviewed between 1/22 and 2/1.
1/27/25 - Federal funding freeze ordered. This was subsequently blocked by a judge, and the Trump administration rescinded the memo.
1/30/25 - Amy Klobuchar questioning Kash Patel, Trumps’s nominee for FBI Director. She quoted him saying, “We’re gonna come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig the elections. We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly.”
2/1/25 - CDC scientists ordered to retract papers containing any of a list of banned keywords. This list includes “gender”, “pregnant person”, and “transgender”.
2/7/2025 - NIH sets indirects to a fixed rate of 15%. Peter Thiel had said that this rate could be “arbitrarily reset” in an interview with Bari Weiss on 11/14/2024.
Ignoring the Courts
In the US Constitution, the executive branch is checked by both the legislative and judicial branches. Many of the actions listed above are likely unconstitutional and/or illegal as only Congress is granted the authority to create agencies and allocate funding for them. As a result, many of these actions have been blocked by the courts and are pending legal battles. What if the administration were to also ignore court rulings?
9/17/21 (before he was on the Trump ticket) - Vance said the following on a podcast: “I think what Trump should do, if I was giving him one piece of advice: fire every single mid level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state. Replace them with our people, and when the courts - ‘cause you will get taken to court - when the courts stop you, stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did, and say, ‘the Chief Justice has made his ruling, now let him enforce it.’”
2/9/25 - Vance and Musk are now questioning the authority of the courts.
J. D. Vance: “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
Elon Musk: “A corrupt judge protecting corruption. He needs to be impeached NOW!”
Other Red Flags
The Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that the President has immunity for all official acts as President.
The “awkward gesture”.
This article will be updated as events unfold.
“Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”
Abraham Lincoln