OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden’s administration is under fire again from his chief rival, who has a bone to pick with the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Army Gen. Mark Milley is scheduled to retire from his post at the end of September, but before his exit, the president who appointed him had some choice words about the top military leader.
On Friday, former President Donald Trump posted to Truth Social that Milley had committed treason by independently communicating with the Chinese military during the Jan. 6 Capital Riots and that “in times gone by,” such an act would have seen him put to death.
He also noted the gross failure of the military under Milley’s command to conduct a successful withdrawal from Afghanistan and his championing of the Biden administration’s “woke” policies.
In the post to Truth Social, Trump wrote, “Mark Milley, who led perhaps the most embarrassing moment in American history with his grossly incompetent implementation of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, costing many lives, leaving behind hundreds of American citizens, and handing over BILLIONS of dollars of the finest military equipment ever made, will be leaving the military next week.”
He continued, “This will be a time for all citizens of the USA to celebrate! This guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States. This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act. To be continued!!!”
As reported by Newsweek, many Republicans, Trump included, accused Milley of treason after a Washington Post report stated he made phone calls behind Trump’s back to General Li Zuocheng of China in October 2020 and January 2021. These calls were allegedly to reassure Li that the United States would not attack China during the transfer of power.
Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker alleged in their 2021 book, “I Alone Can Fix It,” that Milley and other Generals were reportedly afraid Trump would attempt a coup d’etat.
“They may try, but they’re not going to f—— succeed,” the book alleged Milley told his deputies.
“You can’t do this without the military. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with the guns,” according to excerpts obtained by CNN.
However, the move to contact China was made all the more unjustifiable by Milley’s later admission that the General never received an “illegal order” from President Trump after the November 2020 Election. It was heavily insinuated by the left and by mainstream media outlets that Trump had done so when they lionized Milley as ‘preventing WWIII’ and/or ‘saving the Constitution.’
In an ABC interview with reporter Martha Raddatz, Milley was asked if Trump ordered him to use the U.S. military to stay in office after the vote. “I argued the case at various times for alternative courses of action, never received an illegal order,” Milley answered.
Milley, appointed by Trump in 2018, turned on the president during the George Floyd riots of 2020 when the president ordered violent rioters to disperse from the Washington, D.C. streets. After being photographed walking with Trump outside the damaged Ashburton House, the Parish house of St. John’s Church, Milley apologized for the optics, a move Trump saw as a betrayal.
It was only the first, though.
Trump’s opinion of Milley suffered more after the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. He recounted a conversation with the general during a Turning Point USA event at Mar-a-Lago, according to Mediaite, calling him a “f-cking idiot.”
“I’ll never forget Milley saying to me, ‘Sir, sir. It’s cheaper to leave the equipment than to bring it,’” Trump said mockingly. “You think it’s cheaper to leave it there so they can have it than it is to fill it up with a half tank of gas and fly it into Pakistan or fly it back to our country?”
