Top U.S. military officer Milley taking 'safety precautions' after Trump alleges treason
Milley to retire this week after serving as head of Joint Chiefs of Staff for tumultuous 4 years
Mark Milley, set to retire as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says he will take "appropriate measures" to ensure his security after former president Donald Trump suggested he had committed a treasonous act that would have once warranted death.
Trump last week criticized Milley's handling of the U.S. withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in 2020 and said, without providing evidence, that "this guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States."
"This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!" Trump said on Sept. 22 on his Truth Social platform.
Asked about the Trump comments during an interview on CBS's 60 Minutes, Milley, in a clip released on Wednesday, first smirked and then, after a long pause, said, "I've been faithful and loyal to the constitution of the United States for 44½ years."
He added: "I've got adequate safety precautions. I wish those comments had not been made, but they were. And I'll take appropriate measures to ensure my safety and the safety of my family."
U.S. President Joe Biden, during a speech in Tempe, Ariz., on Thursday, called out the lack of response from Republican party members after Trump's comments.
"Although I don't believe even a majority of Republicans think that, the silence is deafening," Biden said. "Hardly any Republican called out such heinous statements."
China calls were to avoid escalation: Milley
Trump's reference to China appears to relate to two contacts made by Milley by Chinese officials, one in October 2020 as the U.S. presidential election neared, and another on Jan. 8, 2021, after Trump supporters attacked the Capitol.
Milley and his office have previously characterized the calls as an effort to prevent tense U.S.-China relations from escalating into open conflict.
"The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs regularly communicates with Chiefs of Defence across the world, including with China and Russia," Milley's spokesperson said in 2021 after the calls were detailed in longtime Washington journalist Bob Woodward's book about the administration, Peril.
"These conversations remain vital to improving mutual understanding of U.S. national security interests, reducing tensions, providing clarity and avoiding unintended consequences or conflict."
Mark Esper, former defence secretary in Trump's administration, said in an MSNBC interview earlier this week that the October 2020 contact with Chinese officials was undertaken at his direction.
As to the January 2021 call, Milley has previously said he briefed then-defence secretary Christopher Miller and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, among others.
Esper said Trump's post "should be condemned by everybody — right, left, Republican, Democrat."
Chris Christie, the most vocal critic of Trump so far during the early days of the Republican primary campaign, called him a "sad and disturbed person" after the Truth Social post.
"A simple lesson in all of this. You either do what Trump says, or you're his enemy," Christie posted this week on X, formerly Twitter.
Longstanding friction
Trump tapped Milley to replace Marine General Joseph Dunford in 2019, but friction developed between the pair.
Milley, in military fatigues, was among the administration officials who walked with Trump for what turned out to be a photo-op at a Washington, D.C., church in June 2020, as protests erupted in the city after the police killing of George Floyd.
Milley would soon publicly apologize.
"My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics," he said.
Milley is set to step down from his role on Sept. 30. He will be succeeded by Charles Brown, most recently the chief of staff of the air force, in an appointment delayed in part by one Republican senator's opposition to the military's abortion policies.
Since leaving office, Trump has directed his ire at Milley in social media posts and speeches over perceived wrongdoing, sometimes using explicit language.
Milley's name arose this summer in the context of Trump's indictment for unlawfully retaining government documents. The authors of a book on Meadows possessed a recording of a conversation with Trump in July 2021 in which he criticizes Milley while allegedly holding a classified document.
Trump's propensity for aggressive rhetoric has been raised recently as he faces four criminal indictments. He has lashed out at judges and prosecutors in each of the cases, and the special counsel investigating his schemes to overturn a 2020 election loss is seeking a limited gag order in order to protect prospective jurors and the investigation.
At his appearance before a House committee last week, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland referenced "an astounding number of threats against public servants" in recent times, without mentioning Trump by name.
"We have the actual example of an attack on an FBI office by somebody who was incensed by political rhetoric," Garland said, a reference to an Ohio man who, in the days before that 2022 attack, posted about a "call to arms" following the FBI search of Trump's property.
With files from Reuters