A soft SELF coup does not require force or the military.
Self-coup
A
self-coup, also called
autocoup (from the Spanish
autogolpe), is a form of
coup d'état in which a nation's leader, having come to power through legal means, tries to stay in power through illegal means
If you do not believe that is what he tried to do, then you are not paying attention to the details....he and his friends and lawyers and Congress critter loyalists, tried to do exactly that, conspired to illegally keep him in power, after he LEGALLY lost.