Trump smears America’s top general as ‘choking dog’ after book reveals he compared ex-president to Hitler

Former President Donald Trump attacked the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Mark Milley, after it was reported in a new book that top US generals were worried that Mr Trump might attempt a coup after the election.

“I never threatened, or spoke about, to anyone, a coup of our Government. So ridiculous!” Mr Trump said in a fiery statement on Thursday.

“If I was going to do a coup, one of the last people I would want to do it with is General Mark Milley,” Mr Trump added. “He got his job only because the world’s most overrated general, James Mattis, could not stand him, had no respect for him, and would not recommend him.”

Gen Mattis served as Mr Trump’s first defence secretary from 2017 to 2019.

“The fact that Mattis didn’t like him, just like Obama didn’t like him and actually fired Milley, was a good thing, not a bad thing. I often act counter to people’s advice who I don’t respect,” Mr Trump continued.

Mr Obama nominated Gen Milley to be army chief of staff in 2015. He became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2019 after being nominated by Mr Trump.

The former president said he “lost respect for Milley when we walked together to St John’s Church (which was still smouldering from a Radical Left fire set the day before), side by side, a walk that has now been proven to be totally appropriate – and the following day Milley choked like a dog in front of the Fake News when they told him they thought he should not have been walking with the President, which turned out to be incorrect”.

After authorities used pepper balls and smoke canisters to disperse largely peaceful protesters outside the White House in June 2020 during racial justice protests taking place across the nation following the murder of George Floyd, Gen Milley apologised for taking part in what became a controversial photo op.

“I should not have been there,” Gen Milley said in a video statement. “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,” Gen Milley added at the time.

“He apologised profusely, making it a big story, instead of saying I am proud to walk with and protect the President of the United States,” Mr Trump added in his lengthy statement on Thursday. “Had he said that, it would have all been over, no big deal, but I saw at that moment he had no courage or skill, certainly not the type of person I would be talking ‘coup’ with. I’m not into coups!”

An investigation by the Interior Department’s inspector general found last month that federal officers violently cleared Lafayette Square in front of the White House of protesters last summer to allow a contractor to install fencing, and not to give Mr Trump the opportunity to use the church for a photo op. Critics of Mr Trump have argued that the president pushed law enforcement to clear the square in order for him to perform an act of political theatre.

Mr Trump said that “around the same time Milley, in a conversation, was an advocate of changing all of the names of our Military Forts and Bases. I realized then, also, he was a much different person than I had hoped. I said to him, ‘spend more time thinking about China and Russia, and less time on being politically correct’”.

In July 2020, Gen Milley called for the military to take “a hard look” at renaming military bases honouring Confederate officers who fought against the Union in the Civil War.

“There is no place in our armed forces for manifestations or symbols of racism, bias or discrimination,” he said at the time.

“But never during my Administration did Milley display what he is showing now. He was not ‘woke,’” Mr Trump continued.

Gen Milley has defended the study of Critical Race Theory at military academies.

“The way I look at Milley, he’s just a better politician than a general, trying to curry favour with the Radical Left and the absolute crazy people espousing a philosophy which will destroy our Country!” Mr Trump concluded.

According to reporting in the new book I Alone Can Fix It by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, Gen Milley saw Mr Trump as “the classic authoritarian leader with nothing to lose,” and that he saw parallels between Mr Trump’s claims of election fraud and Adolf Hitler’s rhetoric.

“This is a Reichstag moment,” Gen Milley told aides, the reporters write. “The gospel of the Führer.”

Speaking to friends, colleagues, and lawmakers about the threat of a coup, Gen Milley is reported to have told his deputies: “They may try, but they’re not going to f**king succeed. 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.”