“You’ve blown it all sky high, by telling me a lie.” — Jigsaw
Karma is interesting. We do reap what we sow. Donald Trump would have been better off dealing with his existing problems, to wit, the E. Jean Carroll rape trial, the Trump Organization investigation, the Manhattan D.A. case, etc. But he didn’t have enough drama in his life, apparently, so he decided to stage a scene where he could stick it to Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chair whom he so loathed.
Why exactly he loathed Milley is still coming to light, but Susan Glasser of the New Yorker writes today that General Milley feared Trump’s erratic and unstable behavior and this was no secret. It’s a certainty that Trump has hated people for much less.
Milley was still very much on his mind. During our second interview with Trump, in November of 2021, months after these initial stories had come out, he told us that the chairman was “weak and stupid” and had “made up a lot of that stuff after I was done.”
None of which was particularly useful for us authors, but it was certainly revealing of Trump’s mind-set as the events that would result in this unprecedented federal criminal case against a former President were taking shape. To listen to the tape is to hear Trump reduced to his reckless and menacing essence: an angry, vengeful man who obsessed over his negative press and sought to weaponize secret information to smite an enemy. When Meadows’s ghostwriters showed up at Bedminster that day, the former President saw a chance to plant his story about Milley. It worked, by the way: the book that Meadows ultimately published in November of 2021, “The Chief’s Chief,” included a detailed account of the meeting in Bedminster, with the “sound of children laughing” at the pool outside drifting into the room as Trump, “dressed in a sport coat and a crisp white shirt,” recalled “a four-page report typed up by Mark Milley himself” that purportedly “contained the general’s own plan to attack Iran.”
No one made much of this attack on Milley when Meadows’s book came out. If anything, it underscored Trump’s own ignorance about the role of the Pentagon in dealing with its Commander-in-Chief. It is the military’s job, and that of its chairman as the President’s senior military adviser, to draw up war plans for any number of scenarios. Presenting such a plan to Trump on Iran is hardly proof of advocacy to use it.
What Milley had been so worried about in the final days of Trump’s Presidency was the spectre of an erratic leader, one who was cavalier with the nation’s secrets, impetuous in his thinking about war and peace, and consumed with himself and his effort to stay in power. All this was only confirmed by Trump’s rant against him. “This totally wins my case,” Trump had said in the taped interview that will now be used against him in court. But it already seems clear that the case it proved was Milley’s.
The United States literally had a madman in office for four years. Trump has no idea about protocol or what the stakes are in government if protocol is flouted. All he knew is that he wanted to take a shot at his nemesis, Mark Milley, and so he played footloose and fancy free with war plans. The irresponsibility of this action cannot be overstated.
Bob Woodward is disgusted but then again who isn’t.
Trump had ample reason to hate Milley, simply because Milley was everything he was not. Smart as hell. Courageous. Respected by the troops he led. But Milley’s biggest sin in Trump’s eyes came before the election. Lest we forget Trump pushed out some hard core conservatives who for all his (Trump’s) faults supported him but had some ethics and felt a duty to the Constitution and country in favor of some under qualified lackey ready and willing to help use military forces to take over Washington DC and establish Martial Law if Trump gave the order to do so.
Milley was having NONE of that sh!t and he made the message that went out to all the armed forces public. What he told them was they’d sworn an oath not to Trump or any President, or the flag or any political Party or ideology but rather to the Constitution of the United States. To support and defend it against all enemies foreign and domestic. AND it included a subtle reminder of the UCMJ which anyone in uniform learns about during training – specifically a couple of articles about obeying lawful orders and one’s rights and duties when receiving an unlawful order. Basically he told them there’d be hell to pay for any officer who led troops in trying to keep Trump in power by using the U.S. Military and any enlisted person that followed them.
Milley had the stature, the gravitas that those in the chain of command sympathetic to Trump and who might go into DC on Jan. 6 under the color of military authority should follow HIS guidance and not that of political hacks parachuted in at the last minute by Trump to use our military to subvert the Constitution and the peaceful transfer of power that prior to Trump LOSING had always taken place in this country. Milley’s message carried the day and it was Trump’s fear that the troops would indeed follow Milley and not him that kept him from declaring Martial Law on Jan. 6. He wanted to, and had some there with him urging him to do so but others present voiced enough objection to get through to Trump and he lost his nerve.
Your headline did make me smile because the blowing up in his face reminded me of Road Runner cartoons. Moments like this:
Denis, You’ve got it exactly right! This is exactly why Trump hates Milley.
Glasser’s take on the mindset of traitor tot is exactly what I thought when I heard the audio tape. He is stupid enough to not realize that what Milley gave him was a sketched out scenario of what could be and not a personal endorsement. Of course that level of professionalism in doing one’s job is totally beyond his ken.
Miley’s loyalty was and is to the nation not Trump. And in Trump.world, everything. must center around him. You must be loyal.to him.above allelse,,not the constitution, not the nation, not any deity.
Milley’s plan worked perfectly. Give this traitor a proposed battle plan and let him be blown up by a hubris bomb! Good work general! Pin another medal on such a military genius.
You served so you know S.O.P is to have a plan for any scenario DOD can think up as even a remote possibility. I’d think that in the case of Iran there is actually a real plan (just in case) but it would take a lot more than four pages to spell it out. Only four pages would be an Executive Summary and Trump wouldn’t even read any of it including the words Executive Summary under the title – which would be something like “Proposed Operation Plan For Iran.”
There’s been a plan filed away probably for four decades which gets updated periodically. One plan that first got into the mix and in a very serious way is one that conservatives don’t even want to acknowledge, much less talk about. It was first drafted almost three and a half DECADES ago and address various potential military actions both on our own and in conjunction with allies in the Asian subcontinent. There are plenty of countries and an enormous number of people who don’t trust the U.S. or flat out hate us. And often each other. That region falling into chaoe with major wars would have an huge geopolitical impact.
Why did the Pentagon start getting into this? It’s hot, and like the middle east not enough water. And unlike elected conservatives those in the DOD knew damn well decades ago we would likely be dealing with the effects of global climate change. Yep, they were certain even then that back in those days what was called Global Warming was real and the best that might be done is to slow down the changes that were coming. Again, we are talking about lots of people who will face an increasing amount of floods and droughts that will affect potable water and food supplies. To say that region is a powder keg and getting more unstable every year is an understatement.
Something to think about isn’t it?