(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Mark Milley, the disgraced former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, admitted he fears a court-martial if former President Donald Trump returns to the White House in 2025.
“He is a walking, talking advertisement of what he’s going to try to do… He’s saying it and it’s not just him, it’s the people around him,” Milley said of Trump in conversations with former colleagues, according to author Bob Woodward in his book War.
Woodward cited podcast host Steve Bannon’s assertions that a new Republican administration will hold Milley “accountable” over his conversations with China during Trump’s first administration.
Milley came under fire in 2021 after Woodward revealed in his book Peril that in October 2020 (the last months of Trump’s term), he held two phone conversations with his Chinese counterparts, assuring them the U.S. would not attack them.
U.S. Armed Forces spokesperson Col. Dave Butler, speaking on Milley’s behalf, defended the phone calls, claiming they were part of his “duties and responsibilities” to convey reassurance.
Milley never disclosed the conversations to Trump, the then-commander-in-chief and duly elected president.
Such secrecy sparked widespread criticism that unelected military officials were undermining the president. Bannon is among those critics, calling Milley’s conversations “treasonous” and “sneaky.”
“We’re going to hold him accountable,” Bannon said in a 2023 episode of his War Room podcast. “We don’t know the form yet of how charges are going to be filed but this guy is not going to get away with this. It was treasonous.”
Steve Bannon says General Milley will be prosecuted for treason during a second Trump term. pic.twitter.com/SwfvOPtM7B
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) November 26, 2023
Bannon added, “You specifically talk to the Chinese … about your mindset and the mindset of the American military in that trying time. And you did not run that by the commander-in-chief, who you swore an oath of office to protect the Constitution.”
In the same episode, Bannon said Milley should have resigned if he had been uncomfortable with Trump’s rhetoric.
“He’s the commander-in-chief. If you had a problem you should have resigned right then. You didn’t. You’re cunning. You’re sneaky. You’re a liar and you’re treasonous—and you will be held accountable,” Bannon concluded.
