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A video has surfaced of President Donald Trump criticizing General Mark Milley while delivering a speech at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Trump explained that Milley informed him that it would be “cheaper” to leave military equipment in Afghanistan compared to other options, such as moving it to neighboring ally Pakistan or bringing it back home.
“Couldn’t they have flown in a couple of hundred pilots and flown the planes out?” he said.
“I’ll never forget Milley saying to me, ‘Sir, sir. It’s cheaper to leave the equipment than to bring it.’”
“I said ‘really?’ You’ve got a $50 million dollar airplane. You’ve got a $29 million gorgeous helicopter. We had every type of helicopter. Many of them brand new. Literally out of the box.”
“You think it’s cheaper to leave it there so they can have it, than it is to fill it up with a half tank of gas and fly it into Pakistan or fly it back to our country?
“‘Yes sir. We think it’s cheaper Sir,’” Trump said.
“That’s when I realized he was a f***ing idiot,” he said as the crowd erupted in laughter.
Watch the clip:
Trump on General Milley telling him to leave the military equipment in Afghanistan:
“That’s when I realized he was a fucking idiot.” pic.twitter.com/fPW0x379g3
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) December 5, 2021
Milley was recently accused of treason following private phone calls with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to undermine Trump.
A report in The Washington Post details how General Mark Milley engaged in a military coup by thwarting President Trump and secretly conspiring with senior military leadership and foreign actors to usurp and undermine the President’s power.
Milley was reportedly “so fearful” that the president’s actions “might spark a war with China” that he secretly called his Chinese counterpart before the election and after Jan. 6 in a bid to avert armed conflict. Milley reassured China that he would “give the communist government a heads up should an attack be ordered by the then commander-in-chief,” Townhall reported.
This “astonishingly improper action” was done without the knowledge of President Donald Trump, RedState reports.
On January 9th, just days after the Jan. 6th riot, it was widely reported that Pelosi called Gen. Milley seeking to have the Pentagon leadership essentially remove Trump from his authorities as the commander in chief.
It would have been unconstitutional for Milley to defy legal orders from the commander in chief despite Pelosi’s encouragement to remove Trump. Trump was still the commander in chief and the military was bound to follow his lawful orders.
Military officials can refuse to carry out orders they view as illegal, but they cannot remove the president from the chain of command. This would amount to a military coup, the officials said at the time.
Despite those reports, Joe Biden said he has “great confidence” in Milley, according to Fox News. Biden’s one-sentence remark came while responding to reporters’ questions. White House press secretary Jen Psaki also defended Milley.
Psaki said that Biden “has worked side by side with Chairman Milley for almost eight months as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” adding that “his experience with him has been that he is a patriot.”
“He is somebody who is is has fidelity to the Constitution, and he has confidence in his leadership,” she added. “I can’t speak to anonymous, unconfirmed reports about prior conversations during the last administration. The president has complete confidence in his leadership, his patriotism and his fidelity to our Constitution,” Psaki concluded.
