Gen. Mark Milley Warns of Fealty to Dictators, in Exit Speech Aimed at Trump
Former president has criticized outgoing Joint Chiefs chairman, suggesting he should be executed for treason
Sept. 29, 2023
WASHINGTON—Army Gen. Mark Milley, the Pentagon’s top officer, warned in his retirement speech on Friday that military officers must adhere to the Constitution and not bow to political pressures, in what appeared to be thinly-veiled comments about former President Donald Trump.
“We don’t take an oath to a country, we don’t take an oath to a tribe, we don’t take an oath to a religion, we don’t take an oath to a king, or a queen, to a tyrant or dictator or wannabe dictator,” Gen. Milley bellowed across a military parade field, without mentioning his former boss by name. “We do not take an oath to an individual, we take an oath to the Constitution, to the idea that is America and we’re willing to die to protect it.”
Friday’s speech was Milley’s last official ceremony as the Joint Chiefs chairman after years of positioning himself as a defender of democracy—and drawing the ire of critics who have accused him of overstepping the authority of the commander in chief and pursuing what they perceive as a progressive agenda.
Trump and others on the political hard right have repeatedly attacked Milley, pushing up against norms for public behavior for politicians and elected officials in the process.
In the past week, Trump, on his Truth Social platform, accused Milley of giving the Chinese military a “heads up” about Trump’s thinking about the final days of his presidency and undermining his authority as commander in chief. Trump suggested he should face death for treason.
Milley has said his calls to his counterpart in Beijing were meant to reassure the Chinese during the political upheaval in Washington as Trump contested the 2020 election and was sanctioned by both the Pentagon leadership, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and other administration officials.
Also earlier this week, Rep. Paul Gosar (R., Ariz.), a longtime critic, wrote in a newsletter: “In a better society, quislings like the strange sodomy-promoting General Milley would be hung.”
Milley’s critics have attempted to cast him as the face of the so-called woke military, saying he has deviated from military norms to advocate for racial justice, climate change and rights of the LGBTQ community while bungling the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. Milley has vehemently defended himself on those counts.
Trump had picked Milley to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs in a surprise move at the time, admiring his gruff, no-nonsense manner and candor. But Trump later turned on Milley after he decided the general didn’t fall into line with him on a number of key issues.
Milley, who served under both Trump and President Biden, was sometimes referred to as the “crisis Chairman” for the number of challenges presented to him while in office. He served during the unrest in Washington, D.C. following the murder of George Floyd. Milley appeared with Trump for a photo session near the White House after law enforcement and National Guardsmen forcibly cleared the area of peaceful protesters—and then later apologized for having been there.
He was also chairman during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, a global pandemic as well as the disastrous withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan following 20 years of war.
Milley, a proud Bostonian and son of a Navy corpsman who fought in World War II, is known for his loquaciousness and penchant for invoking military history to make a point, and served a full, four-year term ending Friday.
“This is the last time you’ll hear from me in uniform, which in itself may be cause for applause,” Milley joked.
He is being succeeded by Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown, only the second Black officer to serve in that role. In a nearly two-hour ceremony Friday at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington that included a 21-gun salute, a review of troops and the typical pomp and circumstance of a senior officer’s retirement, Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin both lauded Milley to an audience on an outdoor parade field.
Biden and Austin both told stories of Milley in combat in Iraq, noting that during combat tours traveling on Route Irish, the name troops gave to one of the most dangerous roads for troops in Baghdad during the war, Milley’s convoys were blown up at least five times as he went to visit troops.
“That’s leadership, that’s patriotism, that’s strength, that’s Mark Milley,” Biden said.
Write to Gordon Lubold at gordon.lubold@wsj.com
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Appeared in the September 30, 20