Milley responds to Trump execution comments: ‘It’s a free country’

Retired Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Tuesday refused to chime in with former President Trump after recalling him saying on social media last year that Trump “should be executed.”

President Trump said in September 2023 that Milley had committed treason and should be put to death, rather than using his second term in the White House to seek revenge against his political opponents. Concerns have grown.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) asked Milley about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan during a House Foreign Affairs hearing on Tuesday.

“I don’t agree with that comment, but this is a free country and people can say what they want. With all due respect, everyone, I’m sorry for the family of Abbey Gate. We came here,” Milley said, referring to the 13 American soldiers who died during the evacuation. “I’m here for the families of those who served in Afghanistan.”

“And I leave those comments. Even if I don’t care about those comments and don’t agree with them, they have the right to say them.” “But I want to keep the focus on these families.”

In his retirement speech days after Trump’s threat, Milley called the former president a “wannabe dictator.”

“We are unique among the militaries of the world. We do not take an oath to a nation. We do not take an oath to a tribe. We do not take an oath to a religion. We do not swear an oath to kings and queens, to tyrants and dictators,” Milley said.

“And we do not swear an oath to would-be dictators,” he continued. “We do not swear an oath to individuals. We swear an oath to the Constitution, we swear to the idea of ​​America, and we would swear to the death to protect it.”

Milley, an appointee of President Donald Trump, often clashed with the former president over the use of force and the appropriate military response. The two sides’ disagreements were particularly sharp over an incident outside St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C., during protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd in June 2020.

The general wore combat fatigues and walked with President Trump to church, later apologizing for giving the “perception that the military was involved in domestic politics.”