Dangerous Ground: Trump’s Aggression Toward Gen. Milley Could Backfire
The president’s placing the former military Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in harm’s way could open a Pandora’s box.
If you don’t know Mark Milley’s background, check out these two informative opening paragraphs from Wikipedia:
Official portrait, 2023. Photo by Chief Petty Officer Carlos M. Vazquez II and Benjamin Applebaum, U.S. Department of Defense
Mark Alexander Milley (born 20 June 1958) is a retired United States Army general who served as the 20th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1, 2019, to September 30, 2023. He had previously served as the 39th chief of staff of the Army from August 14, 2015, to August 9, 2019[3] and held multiple command and staff positions in eight divisions and special forces.
A Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) graduate from Princeton University, Milley earned his commission as an armor officer in 1980. He later received a master's degree from Columbia University. He was appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by U.S. president Donald Trump, making Milley the tenth U.S. Army officer to be chairman. As chairman, Milley was the highest-ranking officer in the United States Armed Forces and the principal military advisor to the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council.[4] His official portrait was unveiled at the Pentagon on January 10, 2025, but was removed within hours of Donald Trump's inauguration, an unprecedented step.[5]
Why was his official portrait removed? Because Milley has become Trump’s military whipping boy for what he and other former generals who served under Trump have done: publicly warned Americans about Trump’s fascism, lying, and inability to lead.
Look at these views from professionals who served under Trump, taken from an Oct. 30, 2024 New York Times article headlined “Once Top Advisors to Trump, They Now Call Him ‘Liar,’ ‘Fascist’ and ‘Unfit’”:
John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general who served as Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, recently called his former boss “an authoritarian,” saying he “admires people who are dictators — he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”
Mark Milley, the country’s top military official during the last two years of Mr. Trump’s presidency, privately told the journalist Bob Woodward that Mr. Trump is a “fascist to the core” and said his pursuit of another four years in office makes him “the most dangerous person to this country,” Mr. Woodward revealed in a recent book…
… Former generals, admirals, diplomats, intelligence officers and security strategists have publicly or privately accused Mr. Trump of being a liar who lacks basic knowledge about the world and represents a danger to democracy.
Milley has proved the most vocal of Trump’s military critics, who also include James Mattis, retired Marine general who served as Trump’s defense secretary, and H.R. McMaster, a retired Army lieutenant general who served as Trump’s national security advisor for a year.
Milley’s stern opposition led to Trump’s immediately putting Milley in harm’s way on reattaining the presidency. Trump’s new Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth “has decided to remove retired Gen. Mark A. Milley’s security detail, suspend his security clearance, and order an inspector general inquiry into his behavior as the Pentagon’s top officer,” according to The Washington Post.
Dangerous Consequences: Military Resignations
Trump’s retribution could bring harmful consequences to the U.S. military, the nation, and to Trump himself.
Stripping Milley of protection and placing him under investigation is in fact a threat to the other generals who have condemned Trump. And the nation’s active military officers from the Army and other services might just see it as a threat to them if they don’t kowtow to Trump’s wishes.
Some 64 per cent of military activists and veterans voted for Trump this past election. But if they see his aggression toward Milley as just the start of an attack on American military officers loyal to the nation and not the president, that 64 per cent might dwindle.
I recall a documentary including an interview with Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel and former chief of staff to Secretary of State (and former general) Colin Powell. Wilkerson said that if the president decided to attack Iran, we would see a mass resignation of veteran military officers, because such an assault would be based on a lie, and not be in the interest of America. The president then was George W. Bush.
Mass resignations would have the same effect as a presidential purge of the military, which Trump has threatened, and which I discussed in an earlier column, recalling Russian dictator Joseph Stalin’s purge of officers in the Russian military. The dissolution of all that military experience was a primary reason for Adolph Hitler’s decision to attack Russia in 1941.
Dangerous Consequences: Possible Violence
While 64 per cent of the military supported Trump, 36 per cent did not. That’s a lot of Americans trained in violent combat. If they see themselves actually threatened by Trump’s aggression, how might they respond?
In an earlier column’s end, I opined that Trump’s fascism might lead to national violence:
And, though Trump and his brownshirts won’t like it – nor will we -- it will move us toward violent revolution. We may have seen its beginnings this past week with the two military veterans’ (one who was still active) attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas.
You’ll recall that one Army veteran used his vehicle to attack and kill innocent people in New Orleans, and was later shot by police. The same day in an evidently unrelated event, an active Army Special Forces member parked a rented Tesla in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas and detonated explosives while shooting himself.
I also recalled in an earlier column the movie about Deep Throat, the Nixon Administration’s whistle blower who anonymously informed The Washington Post about the Watergate scandal. A telling scene in the film has Deep Throat explaining to Post reporter Bob Woodward that the key to Nixon’s power was creating confusion, which allowed him to stay in control.
Confusion has been the political explosive Trump has ignited to open his presidency, led by a barrage of executive actions ranging from massive rounding up of allegedly illegal immigrants to firing a bevy of federal inspectors general to now attacking Gen. Milley.
The consequences for this mass confusion to give Trump dictatorial control will prove damaging to America, and probably to Trump himself.
Pete Hegseth takes action against Trump foe Mark Milley - The Washington Post
How veterans voted in the 2024 election - Windstream
Lawrence Wilkerson - Wikipedia
I Hear “Military Purge” and Recall Stalin (substack.com)
Can You Admit…and Face Up To…Fascism? - by Roger Armbrust (substack.com)
The Racist-Chauvinist-Conman President…Sadly Proves It (substack.com)
For more about Trump’s fascism and other vital issues, read my book published by Parkhurst Brothers Publishers: