Fearful of Donald Trump’s actions in his last weeks as president, the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States Armed Forces, Mark A. Milley, took action in January in case the then president tried to launch a nuclear attack; and even contacted China to avoid an armed conflict with that country.
This indicates’ Danger ‘, the new book of journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Which will go on sale this month, but what the newspaper The Washington Post and CNN advanced details on Tuesday.
According to the book, Milley told General Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army that the United States would not attack them. A call took place on October 30, 2020, Four days before the election that defeated Trump. The second call was the January 8, 2021, Just two days after the uprising at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of the outgoing president.
Milley went so far as to promise Li that he would warn his counterpart in the event of an American attack.
“General Li, I want to assure you that the US government is stable and that everything will be fine,” Milley told him on the first call, according to the book. ” We will not attack or carry out any operation against it“.
“If we’re going to attack, I’ll call them in advance. It won’t be a surprise,” Milley said.
The second call was intended to allay the Chinese ‘fears about the events of January 6. But the book reports that He did not calm down so easily, Even after Milley promised him, “We’re 100 percent firm. Everything’s fine. But democracy can sometimes be neglected.”
Fear of military attacks
Two days after the assault on the Capitol by supporters of Trump, which left five dead on January 6, Milley, who is the highest-ranking US general, convened military high command at a meeting secret and extraordinary in his Pentagon office, the book notes.
Milley instructed them not to accept anyone’s orders unless he was also aware, when it came to launching military or nuclear-weapon attacks, because he feared Trump would decide to “act on his own,” according to the book’s account. of Woodward and Costa.
The general “was sure that Trump had fallen into a severe mental decline after the election, and was now virtually manic, calling on officials and building his own alternative reality with endless conspiracy theories about the election,” he adds.
This led the general to press because any military decision of draft passed through him, A move also taken in 1974 by then-US Secretary of Defense James Schlensinger as President Richard Nixon faced a political trial in the Senate.
Milley, according to the book, called on the admiral overseeing the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the military unit responsible for the Asia-Pacific region, and recommended postponing the next military exercises.
ETrump’s efforts
The book also offers new insights into Trump’s efforts to stay in power despite losing the election.
Trump refused to give in and offered false claims that the election had been stolen.
He repeatedly pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, to refuse to certify the results of the Capitol election on January 6, the event which was later interrupted by the assault of his supporters.
Pence, the book writes, called Dan Quayle, a former Indiana vice president and fellow Republican, to see if there was any way to accede to Trump’s request. Quayle said no.
“Mike, you have no flexibility in this. None. Zero. Forget it,” Quayle said, according to the book. Pence finally agreed. He challenged Trump to reconfirm Joe Biden’s victory, even though it was a merely symbolic act at Congress headquarters in Washington DC.
“I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do that,” Trump replied, according to the book, and then told his vice president, “You betrayed us. I made you. You were nothing.”
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