WASHINGTON: New US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in one of his first acts in the job since being appointed by President Donald Trump, has revoked the personal security detail and security clearance for retired Army general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.
Milley, who served as the top US military officer during some of Trump’s first presidential term, became a leading critic of him after retiring as a four-star general in 2023 during former President Joe Biden’s administration and has faced death threats. Milley will also face an inquiry by the Pentagon inspector general’s office into his conduct that could lead to him being bumped down in rank.
Among other criticisms, Milley was quoted as calling Trump “fascist to the core” in the book “War” by journalist Bob Woodward published last year.
The moves to punish Milley, which also include removal of his two portraits in the Pentagon, came as the Pentagon mobilizes to support Trump’s immigration crackdown and to conform to his conservative revamp of policies on personnel.
These include executive orders that aim to ban transgender people from the armed forces, elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and to reinstate thousands of troops who were kicked out of the military for refusing orders to take COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic.
Hegseth’s moves may have a chilling effect on the Pentagon top brass, whose jobs call for them to provide unvarnished military advice even when it runs counter to policies they are tasked to execute.
The Pentagon said the decisions on Milley were meant to underscore the importance of the chain of command. Trump, as president, is commander in chief of the US military.
“Undermining the chain of command is corrosive to our national security, and restoring accountability is a priority for the Defense Department under President Trump’s leadership,” said Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper.
Democratic lawmakers slammed the move.
“The administration has placed Milley and his family in grave danger, and they have an obligation to immediately restore his federal protection,” Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.
Some former government officials are given security detail after retirement because of the threats they may face. Trump has taken away security details of other former officials since taking office, including that of his former national security adviser John Bolton as well as former top diplomat Mike Pompeo.
In the aftermath of Trump’s supporters storming the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a failed attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden, Milley called China to reassure Beijing of US stability. Trump, in a social media post, described the phone call as “an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.”
Some Trump supporters, seeing Milley as disloyal to Trump, had wanted him called back to active duty and tried for treason. Milley received a pardon from Biden on the last day of his presidency on Jan. 20 in a move the outgoing president said was aimed at protecting him and others from political persecution.
Hegseth has said he believes there are too many four-star generals and that nobody is above review.
“We won World War Two with seven four-star generals. Today we have 44 four-star generals,” Hegseth said at his confirmation hearing. “There’s an inverse relationship between the size of staffs and victory on the battlefield.”
Hegseth has also lashed out at Milley in his latest book, including a sentence using an expletive toward him.
Milley’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The actions against Milley were first reported by Fox News on Tuesday.
A portrait of Mark Esper, army secretary in Trump’s first administration, was also removed from the Pentagon on Wednesday.
Esper, who was also defense secretary in Trump’s first administration, called him a threat to democracy in the run-up to the 2024 election.
A spokesperson for the US Army Center of Military History said the removed portraits remained Army property and will be stored at the Army Museum Support Center at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Milley, as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was Trump’s top military adviser between 2019 and early 2021 and had a dramatic falling out with his boss.
At his retirement ceremony in 2023, Milley took a veiled swipe at Trump, saying US troops take an oath to the Constitution and not a “wannabe dictator.” Trump later that day lashed out at him with a series of insults, calling Milley “slow moving and thinking” and a “moron.”
