Never in my lifetime did I think a sitting President would seriously discuss a military coup...

[DFW]

28. I feared it for a while in 1974

Gerald Gardner once portrayed Nixon discussing something with some US military high-up with the caption, "but we can't bomb Washington." It was meant as a joke at the time.

Only the fact that far right Republicans in 1974 made it clear that they would vote for removal from office, if an impeachment vote got as far as the Senate, finally convinced Nixon to resign. It helped, after Agnew's departure, that Nixon had selected the moderate, and well-respected Gerry Ford as VP, so that everyone was relieved to see Nixon go.

Everyone knows that Pence is almost as much of a nut case as Trump, so the mere action of abandoning the presidency wouldn't reassure anyone. Besides, these days, a Republican president could dump a planeload of anthrax on Boston, and a majority of Republican Senators would cheer and justify it as necessary collateral damage on the Senate floor.

It has been a latent malignancy in the Republican Party since McCarthy, and now the simmering infection has once again erupted in full force.