Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley considered resigning from the White House in the summer of 2020, accusing former President Donald Trump of causing “great and irreparable harm” to the country.
In a drafted resignation letter that was never sent, Milley accused Trump of intentionally dividing the country and politicizing the military, actions the chairman said he could not ignore. The letter was drafted days after protesters were cleared from Lafayette Square outside the White House on June 1, 2020, just moments before Trump was escorted to a church across the street for a photo op.
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“I regret to inform you that I intend to resign as your Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” the letter said, according to an excerpt of the book The Divider by journalists Susan Glasser and Peter Baker. “It is my belief that you were doing great and irreparable harm to my country. I believe that you have made a concerted effort over time to politicize the United States military. I thought that I could change that. I’ve come to the realization that I cannot, and I need to step aside and let someone else try to do that.”
The unsent letter, dated June 8, one week after the incident occurred, offers an inside glimpse of the relationship between Trump and some of his top military officials, who became increasingly frustrated with him during his final days in office.
Milley’s frustration came to a peak on that day, beginning with a conversation that occurred hours before police dispersed the crowd of protesters. That morning, Trump demanded military troops be sent into the square to show force, according to the book.
“We look weak,” Trump said.
However, Milley, then-Attorney General William Barr, and then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper refused, maintaining the National Guard would be enough.
“You are all losers! You are all f***ing losers!” Trump said, according to the book. Turning to Milley, he added, “Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?”
This incident fueled concerns in the chairman, who accused the former president of attempting to use the military to “create fear in the minds of the people.”
“The American people trust their military and they trust us to protect them against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and our military will do just that,” he wrote. “We will not turn our back on the American people.”
Milley also chastised Trump for damaging the country’s international reputation by attempting to militarize the United States similar to Adolf Hitler’s army in World War II. Those accusations stem from conversations the former president had with top officials in which he praised Hitler’s military for being “loyal.”
“Why can’t you be like the German generals?” Trump asked former White House chief of staff John Kelly in a conversation years before the Lafayette incident, according to the book. “The German generals in World War II.”
“You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?” Kelly responded, the book said.
“No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,” Trump purportedly insisted.
Milley rebuked Trump in his drafted resignation letter, accusing him of subscribing to “many of the principles we fought against.”
“Between 1914 and 1945, 150 million people were slaughtered in the conduct of war. They were slaughtered because of tyrannies and dictatorships,” Milley wrote. “That generation, like every generation, has fought against that, has fought against fascism, has fought against Nazism, has fought against extremism. It’s now obvious to me that you don’t understand that world order. You don’t understand what the war was all about.”
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Ultimately, Milley decided to stay in office, contending he could do more in his position to stop Trump from carrying out what he considered to be significant damage to the country.
The Divider, which describes behind-the-scenes details and unreported conversations that occurred inside the White House during Trump’s presidency, is scheduled to be released on Sept. 20.
