Former President Donald Trump issued another tirade against Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after a report that Milley yelled at Trump while he was in office.
Milley, whom Trump appointed in September 2019, reportedly yelled at the former president at the White House Situation Room in August 2020 over his attempt to use the military to quell racial rioting at the time. The episode is reported in a new book by a Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender.
Bender reported that Trump fumed at Milley and yelled at him, “I said you’re in f—ing charge!”
“Well I’m not in charge!” Milley is said to have yelled back at Trump.
“You can’t f—ing talk to me like that!” Trump replied in the account.
Milley then appealed to the others in the room and then-U.S. Attorney General William Barr reportedly backed him up.
Trump vehemently denied the account to Axios through his aide.
“This is totally fake news, it never ever happened. I’m not a fan of Gen. Milley, but I never had an argument with him and the whole thing is false. He never talked back to me. Michael Bender never asked me about it and it’s totally fake news,” he said.
“If Gen. Milley had yelled at me, I would have fired him,” he added later.
On Wednesday, Trump reiterated his denial of the account in a public statement excoriating the general he nominated during his presidency and calling for his resignation.
“Gen. Mark Milley’s greatest fear is upsetting the woke mob,” Trump said in a written statement.
He went on to say Milley “practically begged” him not to use the military to stop the rioting from Black Lives Matter protesters in Washington, D.C.
“In yet another desperate ploy to impress the Radical Left and keep his job, Milley made up a false story that he yelled at me in the Situation Room. This is totally Fake News. If he had displayed such disrespect for his commander in chief, I would have fired him immediately,” Trump continued.
“To further ingratiate himself with Biden, progressive Media, and the Radical Left, Milley went to Congress and actually defended Critical Race Theory being shoved down the throats of our soldiers,” he added.
“Gen. Milley ought to resign,” Trump concluded, “and be replaced with someone who is actually willing to defend our Military from the Leftist Radicals who hate our Country and our Flag.”
After Trump’s denials, Bender told Axios that he stood by his reporting.
“This exchange was confirmed by multiple senior administration officials during the course of hundreds of hours of interviews with dozens of top Trump World aides for this book,” he said.
Bender also claimed he asked for Trump’s version of events for the book but that he never received a response.
Here’s more about Trump’s feud with Gen. Milley:
Trump’s Demand For Gen. Milley To Suppress Floyd Protests Reportedly Devolved Into Shouting | Forbes
www.youtube.com