Woodward/Costa book: Worried Trump could 'go rogue,' Milley took top-secret action to protect nuclea

[Stuart G]

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN)Two days after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, President Donald Trump's top military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, single-handedly took top-secret action to limit Trump from potentially ordering a dangerous military strike or launching nuclear weapons, according to "Peril," a new book by legendary journalist Bob Woodward and veteran Washington Post reporter Robert Costa.

Woodward and Costa write that Milley, deeply shaken by the assault, 'was certain that Trump had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election, with Trump now all but manic, screaming at officials and constructing his own alternate reality about endless election conspiracies.'
Milley worried that Trump could 'go rogue,' the authors write.
"You never know what a president's trigger point is," Milley told his senior staff, according to the book.



Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/14/politics/woodward-book-trump-nuclear/index.html "You never know when you get up in the morning what the day will bring"

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Title should read: " Worried Trump could 'go rogue,' Milley took top-secret action to protect nuclear weapons"

[TallJohn]

1. Seven days in January

Read the book, see the movie.

A bit concerning as I don't trust the military either.

[Escurumbele]

9. I'm with you, I don't trust the military brass either.

[PatSeg]

10. And with Trump,

Sadly we have to go with the lesser of two evils.

[TallJohn]

15. No we don't

If this story is true Milley needs to be busted back to private and Courts-martialed.

Imagine if some Michael Flynn type decided that the propaganda about President Biden's "infirmity" was true and went rouge warning the world's nuclear powers that we had taken the nuke codes away.

Can't happen?

Milley just proved that it can.

It's not a joke.

[TomWilm]

17. "warning that we had taken the nuke codes away". Yes, please!

All nukes should be banished.

In 1986 Reagan and Gorbachev actually agreed to eliminate all nuclear weapons. And then they did not...

Anybody who takes away that big red button from anybody is a hero. Don't care about their reasons.

[harumph]

18. I would think the world would breathe a sigh of relief

that there is SOME kind of check on that power. Trump is and was a fucking lunatic.

[SouthernDem4ever]

24. Very true. Trump over-stepped all boundaries and would be a dictator right now

if others hadn't upheld some rule of law or common decency. Sorry but this is one time I agree with Milley. Until now, I never knew how at-risk our government was at the hands of a few weird despots. Now I know.

[MOMFUDSKI]

30. And fat orange clown

could easily wind up back in that white house with all the election suppression being put in place right now.

[calimary]

25. Welcome to DU. TallJohn.

I know very little about military protocols, but it seems to me - as a citizen whose country was under severe threat while a certified jerk like trump was in the White House - that Milley acted to head off a REAL disaster. A disaster absolutely unimaginable considering nukes might well have been involved. That's WAY too much of a temper tantrum to allow ANY president (even the so-called one) to have, or any presidential aide or appointee or advisor to allow. Seems to me Milley was right to try to head it off, in any way he could.

[Escurumbele]

27. I don't agree with that, he may have saved the World from the worst possible catastrophe

Imagine a Nuclear War, that would be the end of everything, and trump was willing to start one just to stay in the WH to make sure he would not get prosecuted, nothing else.

I don't trust the military brass, but what Milley did was an act of heroism, trump is a different story to any other president, even GW Bush, who was extremely incompetent, was not evil, he was just stupid and did what Cheney, who is evil, told him to do.

I think we need to expect from responsible people, and most of in the military, to make the right decisions at the right time, and in this case Milley was right.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

38. Except that Milley NEVER told anyone to disobey the President!

He was preparing for such an eventuality, sure, by telling top brass at the Pentagon to contact him if Trump gave nuke orders,

I wouldn't have a problem with that even with a Democratic President! The more people that are aware of such a world-changing order, the better! And hopefully the proper decision will be made, or the military will indeed disobey the command if it's assessed to be insane. But it never reached that point with Trump.

[Mz Pip]

40. This.

Trump never did try to launch a nuclear strike, so it’s still pretty speculative as to what would actually have happened. The military must obey lawful orders. Whether the rantings of a narcissistic twit would be considered lawful orders is what needs to discussed.

[Dave says]

41. The nuclear codes were not "taken away"

Hero General Milley simply instructed all services to consult with him in the advent that TFG decided on whim to launch nuclear weapons after losing in November and going into a mental health tailspin. Presumably Milley would’ve agreed to a launch if anything the military was aware of justified a nuclear strike. And the military would’ve been keenly aware ahead of TFG if a strike was necessary. In fact it would be they who turn to Trump advising immediate strikes.

Wasn’t it Rumsfeld who did the same during Watergate? There is precedent. Albeit Rumsfeld was civilian.

I am very glad that someone as high up in the power hierarchy as Milley chose defense of the constitution and, well, continuation of civilization over fidelity to a rogue President.

[marie999]

42. What would he be charged with. He didn't tell anyone to refuse an order.

[left-of-center2012]

2. Wrong link

Try this one:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/14/politics/woodward-book-trump-nuclear/index.html

[Stuart G]

4. Change has been made to your link...Thank You for the correction..I appreciate it..

[yaesu]

3. If tRump was still pres this book would never been published & Woodward would probably

be in prison for some made up charge. The fascist party is still doing his bidding, they are still murdering Americans with their politicizing a dangerous pandemic, they need to be stopped.

[bluestarone]

6. 100% agree

He can NEVER be president again! Now we need to get rid of ALL his congressional terrorists as well!!

[Backseat Driver]

5. So lucky for us - and Milley!

that no one forgot to pay off a "lowly (national) security" guard at some shrink's office because I agree TFG is an off his rocker psychopath/sociopath grandiose cult-God without a single redeemable brain cell

[Turbineguy]

7. I remember that happened with Nixon before he resigned.

Of course Nixon was much more sane than trump.

[sarcasmo]

8. We were so close to F'd, nightmare inducing.

[GopherGal]

11. Shadow President Pelosi to the Rescue

Then Milley received a blunt phone call from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to the book. Woodward and Costa exclusively obtained a transcript of the call, during which Milley tried to reassure Pelosi that the nuclear weapons were safe.
Pelosi pushed back.

"What I'm saying to you is that if they couldn't even stop him from an assault on the Capitol, who even knows what else he may do? And is there anybody in charge at the White House who was doing anything but kissing his fat butt all over this?"
Pelosi continued, "You know he's crazy. He's been crazy for a long time."

According to Woodward and Costa, Milley responded, "Madam Speaker, I agree with you on everything."

I think it'll surprise few that Pelosi's speech in private is less genteel than what she says publicly, but I'm appreciating the "kissing his fat butt" part.

Also interesting in light of recent events:

Milley's fear that Trump could do something unpredictable came from experience. Right after Trump lost the election, Milley discovered the President had signed a military order to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by January 15, 2021, before he left the White House.
The memo had been secretly drafted by two Trump loyalists. No one on the national security team knew about it, according to the book. The memo was eventually nullified, but Milley could not forget that Trump had done an end run around his top military advisers.

[Irish_Dem]

12. Good God. The Orange F-wad could have done anything.

Out of spite and revenge.

[Champp]

13. All the Republicans have gone into serious mental decline

sick and sad.

[ffr]

22. +1

[onetexan]

36. More like mental depravity

[orleans]

14. wow. no wonder we were so worried! thank god milley was worried too. nt

[BigmanPigman]

16. tRump also told Pence, "If you don't do this

I won't be your friend anymore". I just heard it on CNN and thought that my 1st graders were more mature than he is.

[2naSalit]

21. It's more than that...

Even though it is also childish. It was mob-bossese for, I'll be dogging you from now on and you'll have to always watch over your shoulder because I am out to get you.

[Alice Kramden]

29. Exactly

It's mob language for sure - very threatening

[AllaN01Bear]

19. clear and present danger as well.

[ffr]

20. Weakass Pence wasn't sure what to do, obey the law or remain a loyal friend to TFG?

And it was Dan Quayle who spoke reason to him, that his part in the transition of power was merely symbolic, he has no power...to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

I have to imagine the Murdock empire is already in production of an alternate version of this whole debacle where TFG and Pence come out as the heroes who saved our democracy from the insurrectionist mob, not Nancy Pelosi, Milley and Quayle.

It's still very hard to believe how out of control the GOP let this all go with their blessing.

Rat fuckers!

[twodogsbarking]

23. So we don't really know who is in charge.

[wiggs]

26. Important, important stuff. But FFS the headline and article make it seem like the story

is about Milley, Pelosi, Woodward, Costa. The headline should SCREAM that people around the most powerful office-holder in the world AND SOME FOREIGN ADVERSARIES were worried he was nuts, shameless, ruthless, and unhinged.

It's an attempt to make it Milley vs Trump drama rather than talk responsibly about the issue of Trump...could have been MUCH more reporting on other books, articles, quotes, and history that make it clear Milley was just the latest in a long line of observers who have reason to think Trump is dangerously sociopathic in some way.

Maybe they love the idea of Trump remaining in the news, even running again. Maybe good for their bottom line but irresponsible and imcomplete reporting.

[SergeStorms]

28. We all speculated....

as to whether there were people in the military who would stop Asshole45 from using the military to declare martial law, or attack a foreign country.

Most of us speculated that there were. Now we know for sure.

Thank Dog there are men and women who still have the best interests of our country in their minds, first and foremost.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

34. I said from the very beginning that the military would not follow

any illegal orders nor back the Mango Menace in any attempt to start a war with Iran, China, Russia, etc.

[TallJohn]

31. Well. I'm sure nothing will become of it now.

Link to tweet

[Jedi Guy]

32. I get what Vindman and you are saying here, and ordinarily I would agree.

However, Trump was not an ordinary President by any stretch of the imagination. He never had his shit in one sock to begin with, and after he lost the election, the sock was missing in action and the shit was spread hither, thither, and yon. Yes, Milley most certainly threw out the rulebook by doing what he did. In a perfect world, the cabinet would've come together and invoked the 25th Amendment.

Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world and I doubt like hell that the rules were written with a President like Trump in mind. Milley broke the rules, but his reasons for doing so were sterling. I find it very hard to fault him for what he did, particularly since one shudders to think what might have happened if he hadn't.

Given the totality of the circumstances, I think he should be quietly asked to retire and the matter should be considered closed with that.

[NickB79]

33. If Trump ordered a strike and the military said no, that's by definition a military coup, right?

Holy shit, that's too close for comfort.

[SergeStorms]

35. That would be a.....

failed military coup. As long as the military obeys the constitution, there's no coup.

[NickB79]

39. The President is the Commander in Chief

Isn't it unconstitutional for the military to disobey his orders?

[Cha]

37. Thank Goodness for Gen Milley..

DT was s Rapid Rancid Rogue Elephant..