WASHINGTON: New US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in one of his first acts in the job since being appointed by President Donald Trump, has revoked the personal security detail and security clearance for retired Army general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.
\nMilley, who served as the top US military officer during some of Trump\u2019s first presidential term, became a leading critic of him after retiring as a four-star general in 2023 during former President Joe Biden\u2019s administration and has faced death threats. Milley will also face an inquiry by the Pentagon inspector general\u2019s office into his conduct that could lead to him being bumped down in rank.
\nAmong other criticisms, Milley was quoted as calling Trump \u201cfascist to the core\u201d in the book \u201cWar\u201d by journalist Bob Woodward published last year.
\nThe moves to punish Milley, which also include removal of his two portraits in the Pentagon, came as the Pentagon mobilizes to support Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown and to conform to his conservative revamp of policies on personnel.
\nThese include executive orders that aim to ban transgender people from the armed forces, elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and to reinstate thousands of troops who were kicked out of the military for refusing orders to take COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic.
\nHegseth\u2019s moves may have a chilling effect on the Pentagon top brass, whose jobs call for them to provide unvarnished military advice even when it runs counter to policies they are tasked to execute.
\nThe Pentagon said the decisions on Milley were meant to underscore the importance of the chain of command. Trump, as president, is commander in chief of the US military.
\n\u201cUndermining the chain of command is corrosive to our national security, and restoring accountability is a priority for the Defense Department under President Trump\u2019s leadership,\u201d said Hegseth\u2019s chief of staff, Joe Kasper.
\nDemocratic lawmakers slammed the move.
\n\u201cThe administration has placed Milley and his family in grave danger, and they have an obligation to immediately restore his federal protection,\u201d Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.
\nSome former government officials are given security detail after retirement because of the threats they may face. Trump has taken away security details of other former officials since taking office, including that of his former national security adviser John Bolton as well as former top diplomat Mike Pompeo.
\nIn the aftermath of Trump\u2019s supporters storming the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a failed attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden, Milley called China to reassure Beijing of US stability. Trump, in a social media post, described the phone call as \u201can act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.\u201d
\nSome Trump supporters, seeing Milley as disloyal to Trump, had wanted him called back to active duty and tried for treason. Milley received a pardon from Biden on the last day of his presidency on Jan. 20 in a move the outgoing president said was aimed at protecting him and others from political persecution.
\nHegseth has said he believes there are too many four-star generals and that nobody is above review.
\n\u201cWe won World War Two with seven four-star generals. Today we have 44 four-star generals,\u201d Hegseth said at his confirmation hearing. \u201cThere\u2019s an inverse relationship between the size of staffs and victory on the battlefield.\u201d
\nHegseth has also lashed out at Milley in his latest book, including a sentence using an expletive toward him.
\nMilley\u2019s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The actions against Milley were first reported by Fox News on Tuesday.
\nA portrait of Mark Esper, army secretary in Trump\u2019s first administration, was also removed from the Pentagon on Wednesday.
\nEsper, who was also defense secretary in Trump\u2019s first administration, called him a threat to democracy in the run-up to the 2024 election.
\nA spokesperson for the US Army Center of Military History said the removed portraits remained Army property and will be stored at the Army Museum Support Center at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
\nMilley, as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was Trump\u2019s top military adviser between 2019 and early 2021 and had a dramatic falling out with his boss.
\nAt his retirement ceremony in 2023, Milley took a veiled swipe at Trump, saying US troops take an oath to the Constitution and not a \u201cwannabe dictator.\u201d Trump later that day lashed out at him with a series of insults, calling Milley \u201cslow moving and thinking\u201d and a \u201cmoron.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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