As he exited his decades-long career in military service in recent days, retired Gen. Mark Milley rallied U.S. troops to continue their allegiance to the Constitution.
“Fundamental to the health of our Nation and democracy is that we have an apolitical military, a nonpartisan military,” Milley said in a letter addressing troops shared online. “In the military, we take an oath to the United States Constitution and that oath is clear — it says that we will support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. We must always maintain fidelity to the Constitution and the founding idea contained therein — that we are all born free and equal in the eyes of the law.”
While these sentiments are foundational and straightforward, this perspective is not what a major force on the political scene today — Donald Trump — espouses. He has explicitly called for pushing aside the Constitution in service of his ambition for presidential power. That is not an exaggeration. “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump asserted on Truth Social… before later claiming he’d never said he wanted to terminate the Constitution.
Whatever the bizarre reasoning that led to Trump’s clean-up attempt that glosses over the basic substance of what he’d just said, it’s a quote. In the original post on Truth Social, Trump even claimed the country’s founders would be on his side, though the idea of widespread election fraud that Trump was using to support all this anti-democratic clamoring remains disproved by the evidence.
Trump also recently suggested Milley’s execution, having long expressed outrage at the now retired military officer for communications Milley held with a Chinese counterpart as Trump’s term ended. Milley sought to reassure that country the U.S. would not be attacking. Milley argued he was acting in line with expectations of deference to the presidency rather than subverting the office. His calls were known and coordinated inside the U.S. federal government.
Gen Milley’s message to the Force before passing baton to Gen CQ Brown at midnight. pic.twitter.com/LotHxRuVco
— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) October 1, 2023
