How Mark Milley got caught up in Trump’s political wars

It’s a strange role for the country’s top military official, but one that Milley was cast into thanks in large part to Trump. While Milley sought to distance himself from politics, it was often impossible to do so while working for the former president, even after leaving office.

In many ways, Milley has come full circle: The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has moved on from being accused by critics of being a Trump facilitator – defending the decision to strike Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and accompany Trump to the St. Johns Church – to be seen as a key advocate for democracy at a time when Milley and her entourage feared it was threatened by the Commander-in-Chief.

After taking part in Trump’s photoshoot, Milley apologized a week later for being there, saying it was inappropriate. He then resisted Trump by supporting efforts to study the renaming of bases named after Confederate leaders, claiming they were traitors. And since January 6, Milley has clashed with Republicans who have sought to downplay the attack and the need to investigate it.

Now he’s under attack from Fox News’s Tucker Carlson and Florida GOP Representative Matt Gaetz, two stalwarts of the pro-Trump wing of the Republican Party.

After new revelations about Milley’s actions and opinions regarding the Jan.6 insurgency came out this week, Trump wasted little time before sacking Milley in a lengthy statement in response to excerpts from the book.

“I have never threatened or spoken to anyone about a coup by our government,” Trump said. “If I had to do a coup, one of the last people I would want to do it with is General Mark Milley.”

Milley does not intend to publicly address the issues raised in the book, according to a defense official close to him.

The official acknowledged that in the last weeks of the Trump administration, Milley had engaged in activities and communications outside of the traditional portfolio of a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, carrying a heavier political load for keep Trump in check. While Milley “has done his best to actively stay out of politics,” the official said, if the events that have occurred have brought him temporarily into this arena, “so be it.”

“He’s not going to stay silent while people try to use the military against the Americans,” the official said.

– Per person. Never’

Milley, 63, still has two years of his four-year tenure as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the culmination of a four-decade career in the military during which the four-star general commanded units with the 10th Mountain Division and the 101st Airborne and served several combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in nearly 20 years with special forces experience.

Born and raised outside of Boston, Milley went to Princeton, where he joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. He received his Army Officer’s Board after graduating in 1980, taking a different path into the military than the traditional path of attending the United States Military Academy at West Point.

“Absolutely not. By no one. Never,” Milley replied. “I will give my best military advice. It will be frank. It will be honest. It will be rigorous and thorough. And that is what I will do every time.”

Shortly after his confirmation and nomination as president in October 2019, Milley suffered a backlash on Capitol Hill following Trump’s controversial decision to launch airstrikes killing Soleimani, which many Democrats warned. that it could lead to conflict or even war with Iran.

Then, in June, Milley and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper accompanied Trump on a walk from the White House to St. John’s Church, just minutes after protesters were violently evacuated from Lafayette Square in front of the White House.

“I shouldn’t have been there. My presence at that time and in this environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. As an officer in uniform, it was a mistake I made. learned, and I sincerely hope we can learn from it, ”Milley said in a speech to graduates of the National Defense University.

“An act of treason”

Behind the scenes, Milley and Esper were pushing back Trump’s willingness to use active-duty troops in response to the violent protests that erupted over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed last year by a Minneapolis policeman.

A month later, Milley also disagreed with Trump over a plan in Congress to rename the named bases for Confederate leaders, which Trump strongly opposed.

In the weeks leading up to the election, Trump stepped up attacks on his military leaders, accusing in September that senior Pentagon officials “don’t want to do anything but wage wars so that all these wonderful bomb-making companies and make planes and make everything else stay happy. ”

“The guys with the guns”

After the election, Trump’s brutal rhetoric turned into action when he sacked Esper and installed loyalists in the Pentagon, causing Milley to fear that Trump or his allies were attempting a coup attempt to overturn the results of the elections.

According to Leonnig and Rucker, Milley was shaken by the threat of a coup and felt he had to be “on guard” for what might happen.

“They can try, but they’re not going to be successful,” Milley told his assistants, according to the authors. “You can’t do it without the military. You can’t do it without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with the guns.”

Milley and the rest of the Joint Chiefs informally planned what they would do in the event of an order they deemed illegal, unsafe, or misguided, including a proposed resignation, one by one, rather than carrying out orders. .

After the January 6 attack, Milley and all the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a statement condemning the “sedition and insurrection” of the rioters who raped the Capitol and attacked police officers.

Milley focused his efforts on making sure there was a “steel ring” around town for President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, according to Leonnig and Rucker. “We’re going to put a ring of steel around this city and the Nazis won’t go in,” Milley said.

“Personally, I find it offensive”

But Milley’s relief after the peaceful handover of power didn’t mean he was able to put the January 6 chaos behind him.

As Republicans in Congress downplayed the violence that took place on January 6 and opposed efforts to investigate what had happened, Milley found himself on the defensive during a Congressional hearing in June when Republicans brought forward questioned the Pentagon’s efforts on diversity and countering extremism.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin tried to be diplomatic with GOP lawmakers during the hearing, as is often the case with Pentagon leaders who deal with members of Congress trying to score political points.

“I want to understand white rage and I’m white,” Milley said. “What prompted thousands of people to attack this building and try to overthrow the Constitution of the United States of America?

Milley, who studied history, noted that he had read Mao, Karl Marx, and Vladimir Lennon.

“That doesn’t make me a Communist,” Milley said. “Personally, I find it offensive that we are accusing the US military, our general officers, our non-commissioned officers of being ‘awakened’ or whatever because we are studying certain theories that are out there.”