The closing days of Donald Trump’s presidency were a rollercoaster for the top United States military officer as Trump and his allies attempted to stay in power after losing the 2020 election, according to a forthcoming book.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described “a stomach-churning” feeling as he watched then-President Trump relentlessly claim he had won the 2020 election and Milley compared Trump’s actions to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Nazi Germany.
“This is a Reichstag moment,” Milley told his top aides, according to the book by two Washington Post reporters. “The gospel of the Fuhrer.”
In 1933 the German parliament Reichstag building went up in flames giving Hitler a pretext to consolidate his dictatorship.
The book “I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year” by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker is based on interviews with more than 140 people, including senior Trump administration officials, according to the Washington Post.
The authors recount a series of episodes involving General Milley, who became increasingly concerned following Trump’s defeat in the November election, which Joe Biden had won by a count of 306 to 232 in the US Electoral College.
Milley told people he feared an American version of “brownshirts in the streets” after attending a briefing on a “million MAGA march” being planned by Trump. The Brownshirts were political, paramilitary agents who used violence and intimidation to support Hitler’s rise to power.
That same evening, according to a Washington Post report of the book, an old friend called Milley and warned him people close to Trump were attempting to “overturn the government”.
“What the f— am I dealing with?” Milley responded.
The events of January 6 when Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol still roil American politics as Trump continues to hold broad sway over Republican voters and the party. Democrats in the US House have formed a special committee to investigate the January 6 insurrection. That committee is due to hold its first public meeting as soon as next week.
Trump, who still claims the 2020 election was stolen, on Thursday issued a statement saying he had “lost respect for Milley” and “never threatened or spoke about to anyone a coup”.
“Never during my administration did Milley display what he is showing now,” Trump’s statement said.
In the closing days of the presidency, Trump was seeking to install loyalists at the FBI, CIA and the Defense Department.
Milley took the warning signs seriously and began quietly planning with other Pentagon leaders how they would block any attempt by Trump to use the military to stay in power.
“They may try, but they’re not going to f—ing succeed,” Milley told his deputies, according to the book.
Members of Congress and some Trump administration officials also worried at the time that Trump would try to use the military to stay in power. Milley offered reassurances.
“Everything’s going to be okay,” Milley advised, according to the book.
