President Donald Trump dismissed retired Gen. Mark Milley from a federal position and targeted celebrity chef Jose Andres as one of his first acts as president.
Hours after he was sworn into office as the country’s 47th president, Trump announced that his “Presidential Personnel Office is actively in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration, who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again.”
In a post on Truth Social, Trump revealed that Milley and Andres were among the four people he had selected early Tuesday morning to fire immediately. Although Andres had already submitted his resignation earlier this month, Trump said he removed Andres from serving on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. Milley will no longer hold a position on the National Infrastructure Advisory Council.
Trump added that the early Tuesday morning announcement serves as the “Official Notice of Dismissal” and that many similar discharges are “coming soon.”
Milley was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Trump’s final days of his first term.
Milley has become a target of sharp scrutiny for the roles he played while Trump was challenging the results of the 2020 election and as one of the top U.S. military generals at the time of the deadly 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan under Biden.
He had a public falling out with Trump over disagreements about the 2020 election, with Milley slamming Trump’s allegations that the election had been rigged against him. After it was revealed in 2021 that the general, who feared Trump might go rogue, had called up Chinese officials twice after the 2020 election to tell them the “American government is stable” and that China would be warned first if the United States attacked, Trump accused him of treason.
Biden tapped Andres to be co-chairman of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition in 2022.
Andres is a celebrity chef who has cooked for the likes of former President Barack Obama and Juan Carlos, the former king of Spain. He founded the World Central Kitchen, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that has spearheaded feeding operations for Palestinians in Gaza.
Trump and Andres also share a history. In 2015, Andres axed a plan to put a restaurant in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., citing the president’s position on immigration. After the move led to a lawsuit from the Trump Organization, Andres sued back.
Andres blasted the president during a 2019 interview with the Guardian.
“[Trump] is not bringing out the best in all of us. He is bringing out the worst in some of us,” the chef said before asserting Trump pushed an “us versus them” mentality.
“He understands there is a very simple way to unify those people that feel alone, that feel forgotten, and where you find an enemy it is easier to understand your lack of success,” Andres said.
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However, in a social media post on Tuesday confirming he had resigned last week from the Council on Sports because his two-year term was up, Andres sounded a friendlier note to the president.
“I hope @realdonaldtrump exercises his presidential authority so the Council can continue to advocate for fitness and good health for all Americans. These are bipartisan issues … nonpartisan issues,” he said. “May God give you the wisdom, Mr. President, to put politics and name calling aside … and instead lift up the everyday people working to bring America together. Let’s build longer tables.”
