Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, retired Army General Mark Milley, fears that a Trump win in November will see him recalled to active duty and court-martialed. According to a report in the Guardian (see Mark Milley fears being court-martialed if Trump wins, Woodward book says | Donald Trump | The Guardian):

“He is a walking, talking advertisement of what he’s going to try to do,” Milley recently “warned former colleagues”, the veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward writes in an upcoming book. “He’s saying it and it’s not just him, it’s the people around him.”

Milley's fear is based on a couple of things. At one point, President Trump told Milley he intended to do that to two of his most vociferous critics among retired general officers, and Milley was able to talk him out of it.

Trump’s wish to recall and court-martial retired senior officers who criticized him in print has been reported before, including by Mark Esper, Trump’s second secretary of defense. In Woodward’s telling, in a 2020 Oval Office meeting with Milley and Esper, Trump “yelled” and “shouted” about William McRaven, a former admiral who led the 2011 raid in Pakistan in which US special forces killed Osama bin Laden, and Stanley McChrystal, the retired special forces general whose men killed another al-Qaida leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in Iraq in 2006.

Milley was able to persuade Trump to back down, Woodward writes, but fears no such guardrails will be in place if Trump is re-elected.

RELATED: Steve Bannon Launches Epic Rant Against General Milley's 'Treason' – RedState

The other reason is that Milley went out of his way to sabotage President Trump. Milley made a big production out of letting everyone in the media know that during the BLM riots, he considered resigning if President Trump ordered out federal troops under the Insurrection Act; he even made his alleged resignation letter public. He also made two calls to his "counterpart" in China's People's Liberation Army during the last three months of the Trump administration, assuring them the US would not attack China and again let the "right" people know.

We now know that Milley was a prime mover in the decision to ignore President Trump's directive that either the National Guard or active duty military be on hand to preserve order on January 6. That failure led directly to the disorder on Capitol Hill and Trump's second impeachment.

RELATED:

House Committee Drops Transcripts They Say PROVE Pentagon Ignored Trump's J6 National Guard Request – RedState

Kash Patel: Senior Military Officials Intentionally Delayed National Guard Deployment on January 6th – RedState

Army J6 Whistleblower Testifies That Pentagon Delayed National Guard Reaching Capitol – RedState

Now, Milley has become an active partisan in his efforts to keep Trump from returning to the White House. He is part of a group of military and intelligence officials who are calling Trump "dangerous" because the slur of choice, "weird," applies much more to Kamala, Walz, and their spouses than it does to Trump or Vance.

Retired U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley said former President Trump is "a fascist to the core," according to journalist Bob Woodward's forthcoming book, "War," multiple outlets reported on Friday.

Why it matters: Milley's existing scorn for the GOP presidential nominee has escalated. "He is now the most dangerous person to this country," he told Woodward.

• "I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he's a total fascist," Milley, who served as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2019 to 2023, said to Woodward. The Army veteran was a source for Woodward's 2021 book, "Peril."

One of the critical first steps an incoming President Trump has to be to gain control of the military, the Department of Justice, and the Intelligence Community. That will entail him demanding the resignation or retirement of hundreds, if not thousands, of hostile bureaucrats. He should take a page from General George C. Marshall's playbook and remove virtually everyone holding three- or four-star rank; see President Trump's Alleged War With His Generals Shows How the Military Is Producing Self-Centered Careerists Not Leaders – RedState.

If Trump is unable or unwilling to do this, then his second term will be the same squandered opportunity at national renewal as his first.