Mark Milley Takes Safety Precautions After Trump Suggests He Should Be Executed

General Mark Milley, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he has taken security precautions to protect himself and his family after Donald Trump all but called for his execution last week. Trump made the threat while accusing Milley of partnering with China to conspire against his presidency. “This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!” the former president wrote of Milley in a Truth Social post.

Milley denied the accusation in an upcoming interview on 60 Minutes. “I’ve been faithful and loyal to the Constitution of the United States for 44 and a half years,” he said in the interview, a clip of which was released Wednesday. “I’ve got adequate safety precautions. I wish those comments had not been made, but they were. And I’ll take appropriate measures to ensure my safety and the safety of my family.” Declining to comment directly on Trump’s threat, Milley added that “this military, this soldier, me, will never turn our back on that Constitution.”

Trump’s allegations stem from communications Milley had with his Chinese counterpart in October 2020 and January 2021, according to the book Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. Milley reportedly expressed fears that Trump would launch an impulsive and unwarranted attack against China in the closing months of his White House tenure. “If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time,” Milley is quoted as telling General Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army. Following the Capitol riot, Milley made another call to the Chinese official to assure him the US was “100% steady.”

Milley’s spokesperson has defended the calls as preemptive steps to avoid “unintended consequences or conflict,” and said they were done in coordination with the Department of Defense. “His calls with the Chinese and others in October and January were in keeping with these duties and responsibilities conveying reassurance in order to maintain strategic stability,” the spokesperson said in a 2021 statement.

Nonetheless, Trump has framed the calls as an act of high treason. “This guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States,” the former commander-in-chief and leading Republican presidential candidate wrote on Truth Social last week.  

Trump’s implied support for Milley’s execution has since been parroted by Congressman Paul Gosar, a far-right Republican from Arizona. “We now know that the deviant Milley was coordinating with Nancy Pelosi to hurt President Trump, and treasonously working behind Trump’s back,” Gosar wrote in his office’s congressional newsletter this week. “In a better society, quislings like the strange sodomy-promoting General Milley would be hung.”