Former President Trump called retired Gen. Mark Milley, former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a “loser” Wednesday after a hearing on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“Mark Milley is a loser who shamed us in Afghanistan and elsewhere!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
This is far from the first time Trump has lashed out at his appointee.
Milley has become a critic of Trump and referred to him as a “wannabe dictator” in his retirement speech in September. The week before that speech, Trump accused Milley of treason in a Truth Social post, seeming to reference calls made by Milley to China for reassurance at the end of Trump’s term.
“This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!” Trump’s post read. “A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act. To be continued!!!”
On Tuesday, Milley responded to Trump’s September post at the House Foreign Affairs hearing on the Afghanistan withdrawal, saying he doesn’t “agree with the comments, but it’s a free country, and people can say what they want.”
“With all due respect, guys, I’m here for the families of Abbey Gate,” Milley continued, in reference to the 13 U.S. soldiers killed in the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021.
“And I’ll leave those comments — as much as I don’t care for those comments, don’t agree with them — they have a right to say them,” Milley said. “But I’d like to stay focused on these families.”
The Hill has reached out to the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, where Milley is a Charles and Marie Robertson visiting professor and lecturer.