“Few have come to Milley’s defense and even the military was unwilling to offer any pushback. One recently retired general noted to Military.com that Milley is “as radioactive as it gets.”
By Konstantin Toropin and Steve Beynon | Military.com
President Donald Trump focused his ire and retaliation on one person in the very first minutes of his presidency, even before his inauguration concluded — retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, the highest-ranking and most visible officer in the military during the president’s first term in office.
On Jan. 20, as Trump was sworn in, Milley’s recently unveiled portrait painting from his time as Joint Chiefs chairman was quietly removed from a hallway in the Pentagon that displays portraits of all former chairmen.
A week later, another portrait of Milley, a retired Green Beret with more than 40 years of service, from his time as Army chief of staff was removed.
The humiliation wasn’t over for Milley. Trump’s newly appointed defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, announced he was ending Milley’s security detail and initiating an investigation into the retired general to see whether they could strip him of rank, removing one of his stars in retirement.
But the final blow for Milley might be the silence after the open retaliation by Trump, who campaigned on punishing his political enemies.
Few have come to Milley’s defense and even the military, to which the four-star general had given decades of service, was unwilling to offer any pushback.
One recently retired general noted to Military.com that Milley is “as radioactive as it gets.”
Military.com reached out to nearly a dozen current and retired general officers for comment on the actions the Trump administration has taken against Milley.
None would speak even under the condition their names be withheld from publication to protect them from retaliation, a common practice in the press to allow officials to speak candidly when their views could draw retribution.
Keeping Milley at a distance, even anonymously, showed the widespread concern that Trump and his allies pose a threat to those who may fall out of step.
The president’s effort to erase Milley’s history and punish him in retirement appears to be unprecedented in recent history. Trump’s allies argue that they are looking to hold Milley accountable for what they see as a betrayal of the president during the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when Milley reached out to his Chinese counterpart amid the chaos to assure that country that the U.S. was not about to start a military conflict.
In his farewell speech at his retirement, Milley never mentioned Trump by name but pointedly said that service members “don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. … We don’t take an oath to an individual.”
“We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it,” he added.
Milley Wiped from Pentagon History
While removing a portrait may seem like a trivial matter, the Pentagon is not just office space — its miles of hallways are also living memorials of military history and heritage.
Aside from each service dedicating hallways to their accomplishments and history, memorialized within the Pentagon are hundreds of leaders, heroes and battles that stretch back to the founding of the nation or the creation of the services. There are portraits of the secretaries of war, historical artifacts, and even dioramas so elaborate that one incorporates two Vietnam-era Huey helicopter cabs.
Among those displays are hallways lined with portraits of every chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and, for the Army, a hallway with every chief of staff.
Both hallways now have gaps where Milley’s portrait hung — his service scrubbed from the living timeline of the Defense Department’s headquarters. One editorial published Thursday called the move a “Soviet-style” purge.
Still, the response to the removal from all quarters has been an eerie silence.
The Pentagon, despite clearly being part of the effort to remove the portraits, had nothing to say.
Officials at the defense secretary’s office said they had no comment on the removal of the first portrait and said to ask the Army about the removal of the second. The Army directed Military.com back to the secretary’s office.
The office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, a post now held by Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown, also had nothing to say on the matter.
No one in the Pentagon would even say who ordered the removal.
However, more notably, officials and groups that in years past would have rallied around a general under fire have remained silent as well.
Military.com reached out to both the Association of the U.S. Army, or AUSA, and the Military Officers Association of America, MOAA — groups that advocate for soldiers and military officers, respectively — and neither wished to say anything about Milley’s treatment. . . . (read more on Military.com)
An Ignominious End: Gen Milley pardoned by Biden; Portrait pulled from Pentagon
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