On Tuesday afternoon, after reporting that then-President Donald Trump’s top military adviser had made secret plans in case the commander-in-chief became a “scoundrel” after the January 6 riot, the ex-president picked up the phone and called several close associates and prone political allies on television. According to two people familiar with the matter, the former twice-accused president sounded difficult and had a simple request:
He wanted his prominent supporters to appear on television and in public this week to declare that General Mark Milley should be “arrested” for “treason.”
They followed his orders as several SAME–faithful experts and Trumpy candidates—Including U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel, Trump-aligned TPUSA leader Charlie Kirk, and several former Trump officials — the accusation of “treason” in the United States was echoed. Social Networks. And on Tuesday evening, the former U.S. president, twice charged, was on a Newsmax program co-organized by his former White House with the word T.
“I got so many calls today saying it’s a betrayal,” Trump told Newsmax hosts Sean Spicer and Lyndsay Keith. Later in the evening, the former president issued a written statement through his office, calling him “General” Dumbass “Mark Milley, adding that if the information is accurate,” I guess he would be tried by TREASON, as he would have been dealing with his Chinese counterpart behind the president’s back and telling China that he would give them notification of an attack. “
The movements were provoked by the revelations of an upcoming book, Danger, for veteran Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, who represent Milley on the president’s back to prepare a potentially “rogue” nuclear weapons launch order from Trump and reassure Chinese military officials that the U.S. government does not it intended to attack China amid the chaos of the 2020 elections.
In the aftermath of Trump’s deadly Washington, DC riot, The Daily Beast reported that “senior national security officials have spent the past 24 hours looking for ways to keep their commander-in-chief, Donald Trump.” from inciting more violence at home, spilling national secrets or provoking last-minute clashes with international enemies ”.
Excerpts from the work of Woodward and Costa published by He Washington Post and CNN say General Mark Milley, who continues to play that role with President Joe Biden, was so baffled by Trump’s behavior after the insurgency and the Capitol election that he believed the president was in “serious decline.” mental “. and that the president could “become a scoundrel.” At the time, those concerns were shared across the administration and a senior Trump official told The Daily Beast that the insurgency had “changed the calculation” and that “people are worried about [the president’s] mental state. “
Milley, Woodward and Costa wrote, summoned several senior military officers to a secret Pentagon meeting to review nuclear launch procedures and told them to ignore orders for a nuclear launch unless Milley was involved, according to CNN. “No matter what you’re told, do the procedure. Do the process. And I’m part of that procedure.”
It is unclear what Milley was referring to, according to reports, as there are no legal requirements for the chairman of the joint chief of staff to be involved or consulted for the launch of a nuclear weapon.
In the United States, the president has “the sole authority” to launch nuclear weapons, meaning that none of the armed forces or the cabinet should agree or agree with his decision to launch nuclear weapons to the extent that the order is legal according to the laws. of war.
What constitutes an illegal nuclear launch order, however, remains grim, as the massive destructive power of nuclear weapons is intrinsically strained with criteria for lawful target decisions such as military necessity, distinction, proportionality and unnecessary suffering.
Questions about the nuclear launch authority under Trump’s erratic personality have followed high-ranking military officials throughout the former president’s tenure. In 2017, General John Hyten, a former head of the Strategic Command, who is in charge of nuclear forces, avoided worries. In case of requesting a nuclear strike, Hyten said he would “give advice to the president” and, if they tell me to do something illegal, “I will say” Mr. President, this is illegal “Commander-in-Chief to find a suitable legal alternative.
In the wake of the insurgency, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also called on Milley to urge the president to take unspecified “available precautions” to ensure that a “brazen” president cannot start a nuclear strike.
Woodward and Costa report that Milley also made two phone calls to China’s top military officer, General Li Zuocheng, before and after the election to assure the People’s Liberation Army leader that the United States had no plans to attack. China and that the United States government was stable. following the insurrection of the Capitol.
In an appearance on Newsmax TV on Tuesday, Trump smoked reports of Milley’s alleged call with China’s top general.
“So, first of all, if it’s really true, which is hard to believe that I would have called China and done these things and was willing to advise them before an attack, that’s a betrayal,” he said. dir Trump.
The idea was “totally ridiculous,” according to Trump. “For him to say that he would even think of attacking China, I think [Milley is] trying to get out of his incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan, the dumbest thing anyone has ever seen, “the former commander-in-chief continued.
Pentagon officials told Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin on Tuesday Milley had not “inserted[ed] himself ”in the chain of command, but simply “revised” the existing protocol.
As with many of his senior administration positions, Trump’s relationship with his former top general has deteriorated over time. Milley, who conveyed the rules of civil-military relations by appearing in a photo next to the president after federal law enforcement beat and snatched Black Lives Matter protests in Lafayette Square Park, later apologized for “the mistake” and said he had “created” a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. “
Trump, Wall Street Journal Journalist Michael C Bender wrote in a different recent book, apologized, and called Milley “weak” for doing so. And at an August rally in Alabama, the former president publicly erupted in Milley, saying, “This guy doesn’t have what it takes.”