According to a CNN report on an upcoming book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley all-but staged a coup against outgoing President Trump, going so far as to organize the national security apparatus to monitor and interfere with any Orders Trump may have given to the military. In the most startling claim, Milley reported secretly called the chief of the Chinese military to assure him that if the U.S. were to attack China, Milley would give the Chinese military advance notice.
Of course, the way CNN spins it is that Milley thought Trump was crazy and dangerous, and he was seeking to protect the nation via extra-constitutional means:
Two days after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, President Donald Trump’s top military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, single-handedly took secret action to limit Trump from potentially ordering a dangerous military strike or launching nuclear weapons, according to “Peril,” a new book by legendary journalist Bob Woodward and veteran Washington Post reporter Robert Costa….Milley worried that Trump could ‘go rogue,’ the authors write.”You never know what a president’s trigger point is,” Milley told his senior staff, according to the book….In response, Milley took extraordinary action, and called a secret meeting in his Pentagon office on January 8 to review the process for military action, including launching nuclear weapons. Speaking to senior military officials in charge of the National Military Command Center, the Pentagon’s war room, Milley instructed them not to take orders from anyone unless he was involved.”No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I’m part of that procedure,” Milley told the officers, according to the book. He then went around the room, looked each officer in the eye, and asked them to verbally confirm they understood….Milley had already had two back-channel phone calls with China’s top general, who was on high alert over the chaos in the US….He told his top service chiefs to watch everything “all the time.” He called the director of the National Security Agency, Paul Nakasone, and told him, “Needles up … keep watching, scan.” And he told then-CIA Director Gina Haspel, “Aggressively watch everything, 360.”The authors write, ‘Milley was overseeing the mobilization of America’s national security state without the knowledge of the American people or the rest of the world.’Woodward and Costa also write that ‘some might contend that Milley had overstepped his authority and taken extraordinary power for himself,’ but he believed his actions were ‘a good faith precaution to ensure there was no historic rupture in the international order, no accidental war with China or others, and no use of nuclear weapons.’
WaPo gives more detail on the call with the Chinese military:
In a pair of secret phone calls, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army, that the United States would not strike, according to a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward and national political reporter Robert Costa.One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election that unseated President Trump, and the other on Jan. 8, 2021, two days after the Capitol siege carried out by his supporters in a quest to cancel the vote.The first call was prompted by Milley’s review of intelligence suggesting the Chinese believed the United States was preparing to attack. That belief, the authors write, was based on tensions over military exercises in the South China Sea, and deepened by Trump’s belligerent rhetoric toward China.“General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay,” Milley told him. “We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.”In the book’s account, Milley went so far as to pledge he would alert his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, stressing the rapport they’d established through a backchannel. “General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.”Li took the chairman at his word, the authors write in the book, “Peril,” which is set to be released next week.In the second call, placed to address Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6, Li wasn’t as easily assuaged, even after Milley promised him, “We are 100 percent steady. Everything’s fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.”
I have not seen any report of confirmation or denial from Milley, or independent confirmation. So despite two WaPo name-brand reporters on the story, it’s still only “reportedly” the case.
But if true, then this comes close to an extraconstitutional coup as we have ever seen as a nation. There are means of removing a president under the constitution, but the military going rogue is not one of them. And it’s a tricky question under what circumstances the military is oligated to refuse an illegal order — but no such Order ever was given by Trump.
Trump calls Milley’s alleged conduct treason:
Former President Donald Trump said Gen. Mark Milley may have committed treason with secret calls to China at the end of his administration.The ex-commander in chief called into Newsmax on Tuesday to respond to a new book that claimed Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, promised to give his Chinese counterpart advance notice if Trump ordered a strike against China.”If it is actually true — which is hard to believe that he would have called China and done these things and was willing to advise them of an attack or in advance of an attack — that’s treason,” he told Sean Spicer and Lyndsay Keith.
Even Alexander Vindman say Milley needs to resign:
Alexander Vindman, a key witness for House Democrats’ impeachment investigation against President Trump, called on Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley to resign on Tuesday, following revelations that Milley secretly called his counterpart in China to offer assurances that the U.S. would give warning in case of a nuclear assault.“If this is true GEN Milley must resign,” Vindman wrote on Twitter. “He usurped civilian authority, broke Chain of Command, and violated the sacrosanct principle of civilian control over the military.Vindman added, “It’s an extremely dangerous precedent. You can’t simply walk away from that.”
We have seen this movie before. When it comes to Trump Derangement Syndrome, real life is stranger than fiction:
Don’t doubt for a second that part of the motivation for the book is 2024 – to continue to portray Trump as unfit for office, not to take Milley to task. And it’s entirely plausible that Milley leaked the story himself thinking it would make him look like a hero:
Milley has to address these allegations. Maybe he’ll do that when he gets over his “white rage.”
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