Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley feared Trump would attempt a COUP after losing the election, warned of a 'Reichstag moment' and said the then-president was preaching ‘the gospel of the Führer’, new book claims
The country’s top military officer was so convinced that then-President Donald Trump would attempt a coup after his election loss to Joe Biden that he and other senior generals made plans to stop him, according to a new book.
General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his deputies reportedly pledged to resign en masse if they were given an order by Trump that was illegal or unconstitutional.
'They may try, but they’re not going to f***ing succeed,' Milley told his deputies.
'You can't do this without the military. You can't do this without the CIA and the FBI.
'We're the guys with the guns.'
The dramatic quote excerpted by CNN was revealed in a new book authored by Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig titled I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year.
The book is scheduled for release next week.
General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was so convinced that then-President Donald Trump would attempt a coup after his election loss to Joe Biden that he and other senior generals made plans to stop him, according to a new book. Milley is seen left with Trump at the Army-Navy college football game in Philadelphia in December 2018
Milley reportedly referred to Trump supporters as 'brownshirts' and compared the former president to Hitler. The image above shows Trump supporters rioting at the US Capitol on January 6
Days before the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, Milley warned confidantes of a ‘Reichstag moment’ facing the country.
According to the book, his concern stemmed from the fact that Trump was preaching ‘the gospel of the Führer.’
Milly referred to Trump supporters at a march to protest the election as ‘brownshirts in the streets.’
In 1933, after Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany, the Nazis used a fire at the Reichstag building, home to Germany’s parliament, as a pretext to suspend civil liberties and consolidate power by claiming the country was under threat from communists.
The claims were made in a new book due out next week titled I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year
The brownshirts were Nazi paramilitaries who helped Hitler rise to power.
'Milley told his staff that he believed Trump was stoking unrest, possibly in hopes of an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the military,' Rucker and Leonnig write.
The joint chiefs chairman was especially worried by the fact that Trump purged the Defense Department of those who raised objections to his ideas and replaced them with loyalists after the November election.
Days after the election, Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper and replaced him with Christopher Miller.
Other deputies to Esper were also fired and replaced with those who shared the then-president’s views.
In December, Attorney General William Barr resigned after he refused to endorse Trump's claims of rampant voter fraud.
The departures of Barr and Esper left Milley concerned, according to the book.
Milley reportedly told friends that he felt he needed to be ‘on guard’ in anticipation of what might happen.
According to the authors, Milley told associates that he believed Trump was ‘the classic authoritarian leader with nothing to lose,’ which led to the Hitler comparisons.
Milley is portrayed in the book as a key figure that stood between Trump and an overthrow of the government.
No comments