Former President Donald Trump released a new statement on Wednesday slamming Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and calling on him to resign after Milley defended critical race theory in the military last week.
Trump’s full statement, provided to American Military News, is below:
Gen. Mark Milley’s greatest fear is upsetting the woke mob.
When Black Lives Matter rioters were threatening to destroy Washington, D.C., he practically begged me not to send in the military to stop the riots.
Milley later issued an embarrassing and groveling apology for walking at my side to St. John’s Church, which far-left rioters almost burned to the ground the day before. Instead of denouncing the rioters, he denounced himself—a humiliation for our Military. A year later even the Fake News had to admit that their Lafayette Square narrative was a giant lie. Milley, once again, looked like a fool.
Now, in yet another desperate ploy to impress the Radical Left and keep his job, Milley made-up a false story that he yelled at me in the Situation Room. This is totally Fake News. If he had displayed such disrespect for his Commander-in-Chief I would have fired him immediately.
To further ingratiate himself with Biden, progressive Media, and the Radical Left, Milley went to Congress and actually defended Critical Race Theory being shoved down the throats of our soldiers. This Marxist, racist anti-American propaganda has no place in our Military—I banned these training programs, now Biden and the Pentagon have resumed them. As soon as possible, Congress must defund this racist indoctrination.
Gen. Milley ought to resign, and be replaced with someone who is actually willing to defend our Military from the Leftist Radicals who hate our Country and our Flag.
The Situation Room incident came to light in a excerpt from The Wall Street Journal’s Michael Bender’s forthcoming book “Frankly, We Did Win This Election,” which describes an alleged Situation Room encounter in which Trump and Milley got into a shouting match, as Axios first reported Monday. The exchange was allegedly over Trump placing Milley “in charge” of the military response to nationwide riots last year, to which Milley declared was not possible.
Milley drew national attention last week when he told members of Congress on June 23 that critical race theory “is important” and expressed his desire to “understand white rage,” which he seemed to indicate was a theory for the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.
“On the issue of critical race theory … I do think it’s important, actually, for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and be widely read,” Milley said at the time.
“The United States Military Academy is a university. And it is important that we train, and we understand ― and I want to understand white rage. And I’m white, and I want to understand it. So, what is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building, and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America? What caused that? I want to find that out.”
Two days after Milley’s comments, Trump called Milley’s statement “pathetic.”
“They didn’t talk that way when I was around, I can tell you,” Trump continued. “They didn’t talk that way or I would have gotten rid of them in two minutes. But in particular, (the head of the) Navy and Milley, just sad, pathetic statements.”
Trump said critical race theory was unheard of during his administration, but said he ended it wherever it arose.
“I would terminate it everywhere it popped up its ugly head. We terminated it very strongly. I mean, we really went after it and it ended and as soon as they came in, they’re back to putting it up,” he explained.
The head of the Navy, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adml. Mike Gilday, also defended the Navy’s official reading list including a racially charged book, “How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi.
“There is racism in the Navy just like there’s racism in our country, and the way we’re going to get after it is to be honest about it, not to sweep it under the rug, and talk about it,” Gilday testified at the time, adding, “The key thing is that sailors have to be able to think critically.”
