Have you ever watched footage from Belgrade in 2000 or Kiev in 2014 and thought, “That could never happen here”? I used to think the same thing. The idea that a sophisticated, non-violent, media-driven operation could topple a government in the United States felt like something reserved for smaller nations with weaker institutions. But lately, when I’ve started to wonder if we’re being a little too confident.
The playbook for what we now call “color revolutions” has been refined over decades. It isn’t random chaos; it’s a remarkably repeatable sequence of moves. And the scariest part? Almost every box has been ticked on American soil over the past nine years.
The Seven Stages Every Color Revolution Follows
Before we look at where we are, it helps to understand the roadmap itself. Think of it as a cold, calculated checklist used by people who prefer to change regimes without ever firing a shot in anger.
Stage 1: Delegitimize the Target Leadership
The very first move is always to paint the existing government as fundamentally illegitimate. Words like “authoritarian,” “fascist,” “threat to democracy,” or “illegitimate” get repeated until they feel like common sense.
Sound familiar? From the moment 2016 exit polls closed, a chorus of voices—politicians, celebrities, even former intelligence officials—declared the incoming administration illegitimate. Phrases like “not my president” and “selected, not elected” became mainstream within hours. That wasn’t organic outrage; that was the opening salvo.
Stage 2: Preemptive Accusation (Projection)
One of the cleverest tricks is to accuse your opponent of planning the very crimes you intend to commit. Planning to challenge election results? First scream that the other side will refuse to accept defeat. Planning street violence? First claim the incumbent will unleash the military on peaceful citizens.
We watched this play out in real time before the 2020 vote. Endless articles warned that the sitting president would “refuse to leave office” and might declare martial law.” When events unfolded differently, those warnings still served their purpose: they primed the public to see any resistance to the official narrative as proof of guilt.
Stage 3: Build and Fund the “Civil Society” Network
No color revolution happens spontaneously. It requires years of patient investment in NGOs, student groups, activist training centers, and opposition media. The funding is usually layered through foundations and aid agencies so it looks philanthropic rather than political.
In the American context, we’ve seen explosive growth in well-funded organizations dedicated to “defending democracy.” Many of these groups share board members, receive grants from the same small circle of mega-donors, and miraculously produce polished protest materials overnight. That kind of coordination doesn’t happen by accident.
Stage 4: Create a Unifying Symbol and Slogan
Successful operations always give the movement a simple, emotionally charged brand. A color, a flower, a fist, a hashtag—something that can be printed on posters and shouted in unison.
Here, the symbol became a color too, ironically enough: the ubiquitous resistance blue that flooded social media avatars, yard signs, even face masks. The slogan evolved over time—“Not My President,” then “Defend Democracy,” now “No One Is Above the Law.” Each version emotionally powerful, each version flexible enough to justify almost any action.
Stage 5: Manufacture or Exploit an Electoral Crisis
Nothing mobilizes people faster than the belief that their vote has been stolen. The crisis can be real, exaggerated, or completely fabricated—the only requirement is that large numbers of people become convinced the system has failed.
We’ve now lived through multiple rounds of this. Mail-in ballot controversies, late-night vote spikes, statistical anomalies, lawsuits dismissed on procedure rather than merit. Whether any individual claim was true or false is almost beside the point; the cumulative effect was to shatter faith in the electoral process for tens of millions on both sides.
Stage 6: Street Mobilization and Controlled Escalation
Once distrust is widespread, the next step is to get bodies into the streets. The ideal scenario involves large, mostly peaceful crowds with a small, disciplined violent wing that forces authorities to respond—creating the images the operation needs.
The summer of 2020 provided exactly that script on a scale few could have imagined. Billions in damage, federal buildings under siege, “autonomous zones” declared in major cities. Yet much of the corporate media described it as “mostly peaceful,” while simultaneously warning that any federal response would be “prove” the authoritarian predictions.
When the violence is useful, it’s downplayed. When the response to violence can be framed as oppression, it’s magnified. That’s not journalism; that’s narrative management.
Stage 7: Split the Security Forces
This is the make-or-break moment. If the military and police remain loyal to constitutional chain of command, the revolution fails. So the final push always involves direct appeals to the security apparatus: “You serve the people, not the regime.” Promises of future rewards for defectors, threats of prosecution for those who stay loyal.
And here’s where things get genuinely chilling for the United States in 2025.
Retired general officers—some very senior—have publicly warned serving officers against obeying “illegal orders” from the incoming administration. Serving members of Congress have threatened military investigators looking into certain political figures. Anonymous leaks suggest contingency planning inside the Pentagon for how to handle “unconstitutional” directives on border security or domestic law enforcement.
In other words, the loyalty of the security forces is being deliberately undermined before the new president even takes the oath. That has never happened in American history—not during Watergate, not during the Civil War. It is pure color revolution technique transplanted onto American soil.
Where Are We Right Now?
We aren’t wondering whether the early stages succeeded—they already have. The sitting government (meaning the incoming Trump administration) has been branded illegitimate by significant portions of the media, academia, and even the permanent bureaucracy. An electoral crisis atmosphere lingers. Street mobilization networks remain intact and well-funded. Most importantly, direct pressure on the military and law enforcement has begun in earnest.
We are almost certainly in the dangerous transition between Stage 6 and Stage 7.
The next moves will likely include:
- Rapid character assassination of key cabinet nominees to delay or prevent Senate confirmation
- Coordinated leaks designed to create scandals before investigations can even begin
- Attempts to declare certain executive actions “unconstitutional” on day one, providing pretext for institutional resistance
- International statements from allied governments expressing “concern” about American democracy—classic external legitimation of the opposition
If those efforts succeed in paralyzing the new administration, the final stage—forced new elections under international supervision or outright removal—becomes thinkable. That sounds insane when you say it out loud, but every previous color revolution sounded insane to its targets too, right up until the moment it succeeded.
The counter-move is simple in theory, brutal in practice: swift, decisive, legal action to restore constitutional authority, coupled with complete transparency to deny the narrative machine its fuel. But that requires unity of purpose among elected officials, law enforcement leadership, and the military—exactly the unity currently under sustained attack.
Perhaps the most unsettling realization is how ordinary it all feels. No tanks in the streets yet, just op-eds, viral videos, and earnest retired generals on cable news. That’s how every previous target was softened up too.
The United States has the strongest constitutional republic the world has ever seen. But no system is invincible when its own elite class decides the rules no longer apply to them.
We are not doomed—yet. Awareness is the first real defense. Once people recognize the pattern, the spell starts to break. The playbook only works when the target population believes each step is spontaneous and unrelated to the others.
So maybe the question isn’t “Could a color revolution happen here?” anymore.
The question is: What are we going to do about the one that’s already well underway?
