- Trump said the measures taken by General Mark Milley to avoid conflict after Jan. 6 constitute treason.
- According to a new book, Milley took extraordinary action to prevent Trump from provoking war after the riot.
- These are the latest allegations about backstage chaos when Trump tried to subvert last year’s election.
Former President Donald Trump said General Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, committed “betrayal” if reports of him in secret contact with China to lead a potential conflict are true.
Speaking to conservative Newsmax on Tuesday, Trump was asked about excerpts from a new book, “Danger,” by veteran journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.
The authors claim that Milley was so concerned about Trump’s behavior after losing the election that he contacted a Chinese general to establish a secret secondary channel and avoid unnecessary conflicts.
It was the second call Milley made to General Li Zuocheng, and Milley had also called him just before the November election to assure him that the U.S. was stable and did not plan any attacks, they said.
—Newsmax (@newsmax) September 14, 2021
“If it’s really true, it’s hard to believe that he would have called China and done these things and was willing to advise them on an attack or before an attack … that’s a betrayal,” Trump said.
When reports of Milley’s actions surfaced on Tuesday, as detailed in the book, the former president told allies to go on television and demand that Milley be “arrested” for “treason,” The Daily Beast reported.
In the Newsmax interview, Trump stated the opposite and said other people had called him incessantly to accuse Milley of treason.
Trump’s allies, including Fox News host Tucker Carlson, later made the accusation on television and social media.
Excerpts from the book are the latest revelations about the extraordinary actions taken by the top U.S. military official when Trump tried to undo his 2020 election defeat, provoking unfounded allegations of election fraud that inspired supporters to attack the Capitol on the 6th. January.
According to the authors, Milley after the Capitol attack believed that Trump had entered a “severe mental decline.”
The authors said he then took extraordinary action, including convening top Pentagon officials to try to prevent a possible nuclear strike that Trump would launch.
U.S. presidents have the authority to launch nuclear attacks at will, but in practice experts have argued that there are ways to oppose an order that the military considers dangerous or incorrect.
Experts have debated the legality of Milley’s actions.
Nuclear analyst Stephen Schwartz argued that his actions they were “extralegal” because the president of the joint chiefs acts as an adviser and has no authority to overturn a presidential order.
Bradley P. Moss, National Security Attorney, said Milley it did not seek to overturn presidential orders, but simply to assert their role in the decision-making process.
Woodward and Costa say some may believe Milley exceeded his authority, according to excerpts posted by CNN.
They argued that he viewed the actions as an attempt in good faith to ensure that “there was no historical break in the international order, no accidental war with China or others and the use of nuclear weapons.”