Tag: Gen. Milley

Trump says Gen. Mark Milley should be ‘court-martialed’ if he thought the former president potentially sought a coup

Former President Donald Trump on Friday said that General Mark Milley should be “court-martialed and tried” if he believed that the former president sought to carry out a coup, referencing an excerpt from a forthcoming book by Washington Post reporters Carol D. Leonnig and Philip Rucker.

Trump has pushed back against the excerpt from “I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year,” which said that Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, discussed the possibility of a coup with friends, legislators, and colleagues.

“The writings within these third-rate books are Fake News, and ‘General’ Milley (who [former Defense Secretary James] Mattis wanted to send to Europe in order to get rid of him), if he said what was reported, perhaps should be impeached, or court-martialed and tried,” the former president said in a statement. “He tries to be a tough guy, which he is not, but he choked beyond belief as soon as a microphone was stuffed in front of his face or, at the mere sight of the Fake News Media.”

Conservative actress rages at top US general for mentioning white rage: We ‘are the least racist’ race

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On Thursday, appearing on the far-right Newsmax network, actress Sam Sorbo raged against Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley for defending the Pentagon’s efforts to research “white rage.”

Milley was happy to explain the Pentagon’s research when questioned by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) — it was, he noted, a critical part of understanding domestic terrorist threats like the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

“I’ve read Mao Zedong. I’ve read Karl Marx. I’ve read Lenin. That doesn’t make me a communist. So what is wrong with understanding — having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend?” Milley said. Continue reading.

Trump’s bizarre reason for passing over a top candidate for the Joint Chiefs of Staff revealed in new report

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Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is one of a handful of senior officials to transition from Donald Trump’s presidency to Joe Biden’s.

“He is one of the people who bear the scars of the Trump years,” John Gans, a former Obama administration official told The Washington Post. “That may not be his fault, but that is the fate of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, which was being chairman under Donald Trump.”

The Post’s Missy Ryan published a sprawling profile of Milley this Tuesday, spanning from his climb through the military’s ranks to his current role in the Biden administration. Within the piece, there’s a brief window into Trump’s questionable decision-making process as president. Continue reading.

Top general says no role for military in presidential vote

The U.S. armed forces will have no role in carrying out the election process or resolving a disputed vote, the top U.S. military officer told Congress in comments released Friday.

The comments from Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, underscore the extraordinary political environment in America, where the president has declared without evidence that the expected surge in mail-in ballots will make the vote “inaccurate and fraudulent,” and has suggested he might not accept the election results if he loses. 

Trump’s repeated complaints questioning the election’s validity have triggered unprecedented worries about the potential for chaos surrounding the election results. Some have speculated that the military might be called upon to get involved, either by Trump trying to use it to help his reelection prospects or as, Democratic challenger Joe Biden has suggested, to remove Trump from the White House if he refuses to accept defeat. The military has adamantly sought to tamp down that speculation and is zealously protective of its historically nonpartisan nature. Continue reading.

Gen. Milley’s apology shows respect for the principles Trump tramples on

Washington Post logoTEN DAYS after walking in combat fatigues through Lafayette Square with President Trump, just after the park was cleared of peaceful protesters, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, has apologized for getting involved in domestic politics. The general is on target. He should never have been there, and it is to his great credit to admit the mistake. It may encourage others always to respect the Constitution, even when a president is beckoning to cross the line.

On June 1, people protesting the killing of George Floyd in police custody were pushed back with the use of chemical irritants, and Mr. Trump walked to a photo opportunity to hold up a Bible at St. John’s Episcopal Church, trailed by Gen. Milley, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Attorney General William P. Barr, among others. Earlier, Mr. Esper had joined the president in a conference call with governors and promised federal support against violence. Mr. Esper told the governors, “I think the sooner that you mass and dominate the battlespace, the quicker this dissipates and we can get back to the right normal. We need to dominate the battlespace.”

Both Mr. Esper and Gen. Milley showed miserable judgment. The military’s purpose is to fight foreign adversaries, the United States is not a “battlespace,” and walking along with Mr. Trump in a park where peaceful demonstrators had been repulsed sent a terrible signal. Last week, both the secretary and the chairman, having come under blistering criticism, issued letters to the troops reaffirming their commitment to the oath all have taken to uphold the Constitution and its values of free speech and assembly. Continue reading.

Joint Chiefs chairman says he regrets participating in Trump photo-op

The Hill logoJoint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley says he regrets his participation in President Trump’s photo opportunity outside St. John’s Church last week.

“I should not have been there,” Milley said during a recorded message aired at the graduation of the National Defense University on Thursday morning. “My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”

“As a commissioned, uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from,” he said. “And I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.” Continue reading.

Washington Post Editorial Issues Dire Warning To Trump Aides ‘Enabling His Incitement’

“Trump’s aides are helping him to push the country closer not to order but to anarchy,” the newspaper’s editorial board cautioned.

The Washington Post editorial board on Tuesday warned Donald Trump’s top aides that the president’s threat to unleash the military on protesters demonstrating against the death of George Floyd could seriously backfire.

Instead, it may plunge the United States further into chaos and unrest, the newspaper wrote in an editorial headlined: “Trump’s threats to deploy troops move America closer to anarchy.”

The board suggested Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, must “surely know” that the deployment of military forces in American cities would be “counterproductive” and unsustainable. Continue reading.