‘No courage or skill’: Trump denies plotting coup and trashes Gen. Milley
Former Joint Chiefs chairman mobilized military, book says
Former President Donald Trump denied reports he plotted a coup after his election loss — and said he wouldn’t want Gen. Mark Milley on his side if he were going to refuse to leave office.
Trump derided as “so ridiculous!” reports in a new White House book that he wanted to seize power through unconstitutional means to avoid handing over power to President Joe Biden.
“Sorry to inform you, but an Election is my form of ‘coup,’ ” Trump said in an email message. “I’m not into coups.”
He added that Milley, then his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would be “one of the last people” he would want on his side if he were to mount a takeover by force.
“He had no courage or skill, certainly not the type of person I would be talking ‘coup’ with,” Trump said.
The ex-president also said he only appointed Milley because he was a nemesis of former Defense Secretary James Mattis, whom Trump also disliked.
“I often act counter to people’s advice who I don’t respect,” Trump mused.
The rambling missive amounted to Trump’s response to the release of an excerpt from a new book, “I Alone Can Fix It,” by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Phil Rucker.
Milley is quoted in the book as saying that he took reports of a pro-Trump coup seriously and mobilized military and law enforcement leaders against it in the final days of Trump’s presidency.
“They may try, but they’re not going to f---ing succeed,” Milley told associates, according to the book. “You can’t do this without the military. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with the guns.”
Besides denying the coup report, Trump also reupped his attack on Milley over his participation in Trump’s infamous photo op at a Washington D.C. church at the height of the racial justice protests.
Trump accused Milley of hanging him out to dry by agreeing with reporters that it might not have been appropriate for the nation’s top military leaders to give cover to a president making a purely political appearance.
“Milley choked like a dog in front of the Fake News when they told him they thought he should not have been walking with the President,” Trump said.