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Biden backs general on calls to China over Trump mental state

By AFP
September 16, 2021
Biden backs general on calls to China over Trump mental state

WASHINTONG: Top US General Mark Milley held onto his job Wednesday after President Joe Biden rejected pressure to fire him for alleged “secret” phone calls to China amid concerns about then-president Donald Trump’s mental state. “I have great confidence in General Milley,” Biden said.

Republicans demanded Biden dismiss Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, accusing him of undermining civilian control of the military in the calls to his Beijing counterpart last October and January, as Trump refused to accept his election loss.

Milley insisted his calls to Chinese General Li Zuocheng, revealed Tuesday in excerpts from a new book by Washington Post investigative reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, were a normal part of his duties.

“His calls with the Chinese and others in October and January were in keeping with these duties and responsibilities conveying reassurance in order to maintain strategic stability,” Joint Chiefs spokesman Colonel Dave Butler said.

The book, “Peril,” also says that on January 8, two days after Trump supporters ransacked the US Capital building, Milley told his staff that if a “rogue” Trump ordered a nuclear strike, that he would have to confirm it before it was carried out. That, too, was normal procedure, Butler insisted.

Trump had already used the military for his political ends, diverting billions of dollars of Pentagon funding to build an anti-migrant wall on the US Southwest border. But it was too much when, in the summer of 2020 after Black Lives Matter protests spread across the country, Trump wanted Milley to mobilize troops to confront them. According to The Wall Street Journal’s Michael Bender, the two had a shouting match over the issue in the White House Situation Room.

He also reportedly disagreed with Trump’s pressure last year for a rapid withdrawal of all troops from Afghanistan. According to the Woodward-Costa book, just after his election loss Trump had two aides draw up a secret order to have all troops out by January 15. Milley was stunned to find out about the order, discovering that no other senior officials knew about it either. He stormed over to the White House. “What do you mean you have no idea? You’re the national security adviser to the president,” he said to Robert O’Brien, according to the book. “How the hell does this happen?”

O’Brien had the letter cancelled, but it added to suspicions Trump was becoming more erratic and impulsive.According to another book, by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, Milley was so worried late last year that Trump intended to hold onto power that he compared the president to Hitler.