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\nExcept it isn’t anymore.<\/p>\n
\nExcept it isn’t anymore.<\/p>\n
By Konstantin Toropin and Steve Beynon<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump focused his ire and retaliation on one person in the very first minutes of his presidency, even before his inauguration concluded — retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, the highest-ranking and most visible officer in the military during the president’s first term in office.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 20, as Trump was sworn in, Milley’s recently unveiled portrait painting from his time as Joint Chiefs chairman was quietly removed from a hallway in the Pentagon that displays portraits of all former chairmen. A week later, another portrait of Milley, a retired Green Beret with more than 40 years of service, from his time as Army chief of staff was removed.<\/p>\n
The humiliation wasn’t over for Milley. Trump’s newly appointed defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, announced he was ending Milley’s security detail and initiating an investigation into the retired general to see whether they could strip him of rank, removing one of his stars in retirement.<\/p>\n
Read Next: Governors Identify 2 Soldiers Killed in Black Hawk Collision While Third Name Withheld by Service<\/p>\n
But the final blow for Milley might be the silence after the open retaliation by Trump, who campaigned on punishing his political enemies.<\/p>\n
Few have come to Milley’s defense and even the military, to which the four-star general had given decades of service, was unwilling to offer any pushback.<\/p>\n
One recently retired general noted to Military.com that Milley is “as radioactive as it gets.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n