Milley says he will take ‘appropriate measures’ to ensure safety following Trump comments

In an interview on “60 Minutes” on Wednesday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley said he will take “appropriate measures” to make sure he and his family are safe in the wake of recent comments made by former President Trump.

Milley’s words come after a Truth Social post by Trump last week calling the chairman a “Woke train wreck” and accusing him of treason, seeming to reference calls made by Milley to China for reassurance at the end of Trump’s term.

“This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!” Trump’s post read. “A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act. To be continued!!!”

“I’ve got adequate safety precautions,” the military leader said in response to a question about his concern about his safety from CBS’s Norah O’Donnell.

BassTurd,

It would be really cool if a judge, any judge, would grow a fucking spine and treat Trump like everyone else. Stay the motherfucker, place a gag order, and lock him up until trial, just like every other normal citizen. Fuck this special treatment bullshit.

30mag,

I am afraid that principles have been largely displaced by politics.

Binthinkin,

Trump threatening military with goons is laughable.

Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever,

It is until it isn’t.

Jan 6 was kind of a miracle because the cops sided with the government. But there were plenty of out of state cops on the side of the terrorists.

Same with the military. The hope would be that the majority obey the command structure and realize that trump et al are actively opposed to them. But… you tend to not get the best and the brightest to agree to join the military.

Or, to go back to Jan 6: There were definitely bad actor secret service agents and pence likely would have been lynched if he had the wrong detail that day. Same with congress people who had to genuinely think about who they were trusting.

So yeah. milley is generally well liked enough and high up enough that he knows who he can trust. But you can bet he is being careful about who he lets protect his family and which bases he visits.

BigNote,

Meaning no disrespect, but it’s pretty obvious that you don’t know much about the US military. The senior officer corps uniformly despises Trump for all of the obvious reasons that we already know about, and no doubt for other reasons that aren’t public knowledge.

Trump is only popular among the enlisted ranks, and even that’s not universally true.

In any case, while the enlisted ranks know how to keep things rolling and coordinated at the lower levels of organization, there is no world in which any of them knows how to coordinate whole divisions, carrier groups, fighter squadrons, signals intelligence, bomber groups, the nuclear arsenal, and so on and so forth.

The US military is a vast and incredibly complex organization and the only people who really know how to operate it are all in the senior officer corps which again, uniformly despises Trump.

All that said, I would almost kind of like some crazy MAGA fucker to try to assassinate Miley. You know he’s protected by some of the most highly competent and experienced security experts on the planet.

Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever,

Got it. Can’t shoot a general without having a nuclear submarine capable of launching a vtol off the deck.

It is enlisted and junior officers who are actually standing guard. It doesn’t matter if every single captain and above is a true patriot (also, I have had to give presentations to some magats at much higher ranks than your “The military is great” post would say but…). You still are going to want to make sure you know the lieutenant and the sergeant who is actually standing near your kids with an assault rifle.

And, just because we are in full non sequitor territory: you don’t get to the upper ranks without being a politician. And there are very much political decisions to be made about standing up to prevent efforts by the administration who you will likely be working for within the next decade. Because hopefully trump will never be elected ever again (not like he ever really was to begin with but…). But republicans will get power eventually and they will likely be more magat than not.

vimdiesel,

This is why tuberville is trying to stop military promotions, to help trump in case he wins in 2024. One of Trump’s first action would be to clean house in the military and extract anyone who doesn’t promise to help with his military coup

Muehe, (edited )

Please don’t ask me for a source because I don’t have one, but I distinctly remember reporting about Pence being warned not to trust any unfamiliar secret service agents, and refusing to get into a car after the riot began because he did not recognise the driver.

Edit: Found a source:

After being taken to an undisclosed portion of the Capitol during the riot, Pence’s Secret Service agents, whom Raskin suspected were reporting directly to Trump’s security detail, asked him to enter an armored limousine. The intent, some have theorized, was to drive Pence away from the building, preventing him from certifying the election results, after he had signaled his unwillingness to go against his duties and keep Trump in power.

[…]

“I’m not getting in the car, Tim,” Pence said, in response to Giebels’ insistence that he enter the armored vehicle. “I trust you, Tim, but you’re not driving the car. If I get in that vehicle, you guys are taking off. I’m not getting in the car.”

stevedidWHAT,
@stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world avatar

Honestly, I gotta say maybe Trump is what the country needs.

CALM DOWN

hi

He’s exactly what we need to see the exact special treatment that the rich and powerful get. He’s the shinning example of what kind of shit gets to fly through our machine unscathed.

ilickfrogs,
@ilickfrogs@lemmy.world avatar

Could you imagine if a random charismatic person was the cause of Jan 6th? They’d be rotting in prison for the rest of their life. But oh golly gee, a rich guy? It’s ok, he won’t do it again.

stevedidWHAT,
@stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world avatar

You know what they say

Some of those who work forces

BeautifulMind,
@BeautifulMind@lemmy.world avatar

Y’know what might be an appropriate measure? Prosecute people that stoke or incite violence against our troops

cosmicrookie,
@cosmicrookie@lemmy.world avatar

Against any other person really

some_guy,

Call it what it is: terrorism.

paddirn,

Yet if any other citizen were to make comments like that about a government official, we’d already be locked up. How many lines does he have to cross before somebody will get the balls to throw the book at him?

Gork,

He could literally shoot someone on 5th Avenue and get away with it.

Ducks,

The irony being Trump has committed multiple acts so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!

DrDeadCrash,

They always confess in the form of an accusation.

TurboDiesel,
@TurboDiesel@lemmy.world avatar

How stupid do you have to be to threaten a 4-star army general?

Well, I guess as stupid as Trump, but still it defies logic.

CADmonkey,

One has to wonder if Milley was thinking “Yeah? Him and what army”

njm1314,

Well it’s not like he’s gonna face any consequences from it.

ki77erb,

In a normal world it would be incredibly stupid. In the reality that we’re living in, insulting military members, even wounded veterans can appeal to a certain crowd. Even ironically if some of the people in the crowd are military members or wounded veterans. The number one rule when you’re in a cult, is that the cult leader is always right.

18_24_61_b_17_17_4,
@18_24_61_b_17_17_4@lemmy.world avatar

Bit of projection there in Trump’s post, eh?

Sweetpeaches69,

Projection? Funny, I know that as the GOP special.

Fisk400,

So, why do they hate him?

DragonTypeWyvern,

He didn’t try to launch a military coup.

Fisk400,

In general or was there a specific Mike Pence situation where he just refused to commit treason?

Heresy_generator, (edited )
Heresy_generator avatar

Reportedly Milley anticipated Trump attempting a coup and actively worked behind the scenes to make sure it wouldn't work.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/15/politics/milley-trump-politics-january-6/index.html

Milley was deeply concerned Trump and his allies might attempt a coup after the November 2020 election, and he compared Trump’s lies about election fraud to the rhetoric used by Adolf Hitler as he rose to power in Germany.

“This is a Reichstag moment,” Milley told his aides, according to the book. “The gospel of the Führer.”
...
The official acknowledged that during the final weeks of the Trump administration, Milley engaged in activities and communications not part of the traditional portfolio of a Joint Chiefs chairman, carrying a heavier political load to keep Trump in check. While Milley “tried his hardest to actively stay out of politics,” the official said, if the events that occurred brought him into that arena temporarily, “so be it.”

“He’s not going to sit in silence while people try to use the military against Americans,” the official said.
...
After the election, Trump’s blustery rhetoric turned into action when he fired Esper and installed loyalists at the Pentagon, raising Milley’s fears that Trump or his allies could try to attempt a coup to overturn the election results.

According to Leonnig and Rucker, Milley was shaken by the threat of a coup and felt he had to be “on guard” for what might come.

“They may try, but they’re not going to f**king succeed,” Milley told his deputies, according to the authors. “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.”

Milley and the rest of the Joint Chiefs informally planned for what they would do in the event of an order they deemed illegal, dangerous or ill-advised, including a proposal to resign, one-by-one, rather than carry out the orders.

After the January 6 attack, Milley and the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a statement condemning the “sedition and insurrection” of the rioters who breached the Capitol and attacked police officers.

Milley focused his efforts on ensuring there was a “ring of steel” around the city for the January 20 inauguration of President Joe Biden, according to Leonnig and Rucker. “We’re going to put a ring of steel around this city and the Nazis aren’t getting in,” Milley said.

They hate him because he lived up to his oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. They hate him because he's an actual patriot.

winterayars,

Oh damn, someone with his head on straight. That legitimately makes me feel better.

cybersandwich,

Holy shit. I feel like I was living under a blanket or something. I didn’t realize how much Milley actually suspected and anticipated a coup attempt.

That is FUCKING insane. Jan 6 was incredibly bad, but that the joint chiefs actively suspected an attempt at a coup is something altogether insane. If he wins this next election I don’t think we’ll have another.

Muehe,

I feel like I was living under a blanket or something.

I mean I guess. Didn’t lots of people on “the left” (by American standards) suspect something like this to happen? Think of the man what you will, but that comedian Bill Maher predicted it since before Trump was sworn into office, kept saying it for four years straight at every opportunity.

Muehe,

Basically in his role as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (a council of the different military branches) he called his Chinese counterpart during the election chaos to assure them Trump couldn’t unilaterally declare war on China:

Woodward and Costa describe how Milley learned in October 2020 that the Chinese had become concerned that Trump would preemptively attack China because Trump was losing the 2020 election and his rhetoric against China was growing increasingly hostile.

Milley again called his Chinese counterpart on Jan. 8, 2021, two days after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, to again reassure him that the American government was stable and not an immediate threat to China.

Source

Maeve,

I’m curious as to what tfg was involved with, wrt China. There’s something he’s afraid will come out.

phoenixz,

That sounds more like the actuoi of someone desperai trying to put out fires whilst Trump was tossing gasoline everywhere

Hanabie,
@Hanabie@sh.itjust.works avatar

How are death threats legal in the USA?

mx_smith,

It is stochastic terrorism.

yanyuan,

It’s not a threat, he’s just talking about times gone by. /s

As Frank once said, those were the days.

Unaware7013,

Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest 4-star general?

sailingbythelee,

Thank you. Your reference to Henry II (via Shakespeare) reminds us that people who hold great sway over violent individuals, like a medieval king, a mob boss or Trump, are still responsible for the actions of their followers, even if they express their wishes in slightly oblique terms. Trump’s attempts to thinly cloak his wishes are not new or particularly clever. This is how Henry II had Thomas Beckett killed way back in 1170, and I’m sure it was also very common in the ancient world. The law needs to crack down on this mob-boss mentality.

loobkoob,
loobkoob avatar

It has a name, too: stochastic terrorism.

TwoGems,
@TwoGems@lemmy.world avatar

They’re only legal if you’re Republican.

Kathy Griffin got blacklisted+investigated for holding up a fake severed Trump head.

npr.org/…/kathy-griffin-life-after-the-trump-seve…

cbsnews.com/…/kathy-griffin-on-death-threats-canc…

But be a Republican politician making death threats and the DOJ will wrist slap you. It’s quite clear the bias our DOJ has always had. Other countries like Canada consider some of our extremists terrorists, and we’re still handing them baby sentences for an insurrection.

BossDj,

Didn’t Republicans burn Obama effigies?

Maeve,

And hung them, iirc.

TwoGems,
@TwoGems@lemmy.world avatar

Yep

ki77erb,

They laterally erected a gallows outside the capitol on Jan 6th and chanted “hang Mike Pence” while they tried to go inside and get him.

winterayars,

They were openly hoping someone would get ahold of Pelosi or AOC and kill them, too.

DigitalTraveler42,

Lynch mobs love a lil rape and murder, but yet they cry those crocodile tears over Ashli Babbit,

ProcurementCat,

Almost sounds as if threats are punished harder than actual attempts

DragonTypeWyvern,

Almost sounds like the federal security agencies aren’t actually too pressed about defeating domestic terrorism.

sturmblast,

well that’s because our government’s full of people from both parties frankly it’s hard to convince people on the same team to go after their own

AdlachGyfiawn,
@AdlachGyfiawn@lemmygrad.ml avatar

Not really. Democrats are willing to censure and investigate their own party members—maybe even too willing. Ask Al Franken.

Eldritch,

I don’t often have opportunity to agree with lemmygrad users. But your observation is spot on here.

Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever,

Those that work forces are the same that burn crosses.

When “law enforcement” agrees with the terrorists, they aren’t going to really do much to stop them.

cybersandwich,

I’m pretty sure the founders of the proud boys and some of our magat groups are Canadian morons. So I’m not so sure.

ViewSonik,

Trump should be in prison along with all of his co-conspirators. The longer he stays free, the more crimes he commits.

Rapidcreek,

I am certain General Miley knows how to stand his ground.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Standing ground won’t help if someone is shooting you from a distance. Or sending you a mail bomb or anthrax. Lots of ways he could be killed, sadly.

BigNote,

The guy is surrounded by a team composed of some of the most elite, highly-trained and experienced security experts on the planet. I don’t think he has much to worry about. His security detail will be composed of tier 1 operators; the elite of the elite.

vimdiesel,

I seriously doubt that. I’m sure he has a secret agent or two for protection, but I think you’re making this up.

Rapidcreek,

Ah, but Miley has friends with tanks.

RojoSanIchiban,

And drones with Hellfire missiles…

(cue Ride of the Valkyries outside Mar-a-Lardo)

DragonTypeWyvern,

There is a certain advantage to being a four star general in the US Army in regards to personal safety.

Maeve,

“Not your personal army” comes to mind.

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