There's no coup here. There are people upholding their sworn oath to defend the Constitution, and trying to make sense out of a logically incoherent President who hired them to do just that. The President can fire them at any time if he dislikes their work.
No, I'm saying "don't undermine the president" applies, at most, to the people in the executive branch of the government.
The op-ed was written by a senior member of the executive branch, so I’m not sure how that has any bearing on what’s being discussed here.
Oh I totally agree with the statement when restricted to people like the author. Even then it depends on the definition of "undermining".
I think the author is cowardly, disingenuous, and dangerous.