On the 25th of July 2021 Tunisian President Kais Saied suspended Parliament, sacked Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, and removed parliamentary immunity for members of parliament. Saied granted himself interim executive powers and appointed himself the equivalent of Tunisia’s head prosecutor, citing “exceptional” circumstances; this was in response to protests and amidst a financial crisis that has only been complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. While he has amassed excessive power and disrupted the country’s democratic institutions, Kais Saied still enjoys a lot of popular support, and international media organisations seem reluctant to call this a coup. Is the Tunisian political crisis a coup?