Following Donald Trump's defeat to Joe Biden in the Presidential elections, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley feared that the former US President might attempt a coup or undertake dangerous or illegal measure to regain power. The startling revelation was made in upcoming book, I Alone Can Fix It, scheduled for next week release.
Days after facing loss in the November elections Trump and his supporters continued to call the election result fraud and claimed that it was Trump who had won.
Milley and Other Joint Chiefs Had Planned to Resign
Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker have authored the book. According to the excerpts of the book obtained by CNN, shaken by Trump's behavior following the defeat, Milley and other top officials informally planned for different ways to stop him in case he attempts a coup.
The book details about Milley and the other Joint Chiefs discussing a plan to resign, one-by-one, rather than carry out orders from Trump that they considered to be illegal, dangerous or ill-advised. "It was a kind of Saturday Night Massacre in reverse," Leonnig and Rucker write.
According to the writers, Milley's fear stemmed from the drastic moves undertaken by Trump by placing his closest aides in positions of power at the Pentagon following the elections. Further the removal of Defense Secretary Mark Esper and the resignation of Attorney General William Barr also hinted at the possibility of something dangerous being planned.
Milley also shared dilemma with his colleagues, friends and lawmakers, according to the authors. "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," Miley was quoted telling his deputies.
The writers also spoke about January 6 insurrection at the Capitol claiming that in the days leading up to January 6, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was worried about the former president's call to action. "Milley told his staff that he believed Trump was stoking unrest, possibly in hopes of an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the military," read the book.
The general also dubbed Trump as "the classic authoritarian leader with nothing to lose," and drew similarities between Adolf Hitler's rhetoric as a victim and savior and Trump's false claims of election fraud. "This is a Reichstag moment," Milley told aides, according to the book. "The gospel of the Führer."
While speaking to his aides prior to the pro-Trump "Million MAGA March" Milley said that he feared it "could be the modern American equivalent of 'brownshirts in the streets."
