Gen. Mark Milley feared Trump would use the military

• Gen. Mark Milley was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and accompanied Donald Trump on his infamous march in 2018.
• He reportedly drafted a resignation letter in the aftermath of the incident but chose not to send it to Trump.
• Milley reportedly became increasingly concerned that Trump would start a foreign war and use the military to secure domestic authority.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley was concerned that former President Trump would try to use the military to stay in power after his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election failed, according to a Monday report.

While Milley was relatively quiet in the early years of Trump’s presidency, he reached a tipping point in 2018 when he accompanied Trump on his infamous march across Lafayette Square outside the White House, according to the New Yorker.

Protesters were moved aside for Trump’s performance, and Milley later apologised for attending, saying his presence gave the impression that the military was working against Trump’s opponents.

“As many of you saw, the result of the photograph of me at Lafayette Square last week. That sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society,” Milley said at the time. “I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”

“As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it,” he added.

Milley reportedly drafted a resignation letter in the aftermath of the incident but chose not to send it to Trump.

As the 2020 election approached, Milley reportedly became increasingly concerned that Trump would start a foreign war and use the military to secure domestic authority.

Milley, “envisioned a declaration of martial law or a Presidential invocation of the Insurrection Act.”

Milley was reportedly solely focused on ensuring the transfer of power to then-President-Elect Joe Biden by late November 2020.

“Our job is to land this plane safely and to do a peaceful transfer of power the twentieth of January,” Milley told staff at the time. “This is our obligation to this nation.”

When Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, Milley told the New Yorker that Vice President Mike Pence ultimately ordered the National Guard to respond.

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