The Business Plot of 1933 was an alleged conspiracy in which a group of wealthy American industrialists and financiers sought to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose New Deal policies threatened their economic interests.

According to retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, the conspirators planned to recruit him to lead a massive veterans’ organization, modeled on European fascist movements, and use it to pressure or forcibly remove, Roosevelt from office. Butler testified under oath in 1934 before the McCormack–Dickstein Committee, revealing that the plotters intended to install him as a figurehead dictator while they controlled the government behind the scenes.

Although the committee found Butler’s testimony credible, no one was prosecuted, and major newspapers at the time downplayed or dismissed the story. Later investigations and historical analyses suggest the plotters underestimated Butler’s loyalty to democratic institutions; instead of joining them, he exposed the scheme.

The Business Plot remains one of the most striking examples of how economic elites, threatened by sweeping reforms during the Great Depression, considered extreme measures to preserve their power.

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