Former President Trump on Tuesday said the United States' top military officer was guilty of treason if he went behind his back and promised to warn China of an impending attack.
He was responding to bombshell revelations in a new book claiming that Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, twice called his Chinese counterpart last year over concerns that then President Trump was ready to go to war.
'If it is actually true - which is hard to believe that he would have called China, and done these things and was willing to advise them of an attack or in advance of an attack - that's treason,' said Trump during an interview with Sean Spicer on Newsmax TV.
Excerpts from 'Peril,' by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, were published on Tuesday suggesting Milley feared Trump would launch a war in the wake of November's election defeat to Joe Biden.
Milley sought to assure Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People's Liberation Army that the U.S. was not about to launch strikes in the calls.
In one call he said he would use backchannels to alert his counterpart if an attack were imminent.
The deadlines triggered a wave of condemnation from Republicans who demanded Milley's resignation and accusations of treason.
An angry Trump dismissed the claims and said Milley was trying to distract from his own role in Afghanistan.
'I think he's trying to just get out of his incompetent withdrawal out of Afghanistan, the worst, the dumbest thing that anybody's seen ... probably the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to our country,' he said.
Former President Trump accused the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of treason as he responded to claims on Tuesday that Gen Mark Milley told his Chinese counterpart he would warn him of any impending US attack amid
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army General Mark Milley phoned his Chinese counterpart to give reassurances two days after the Capitol riot and cautioned US military leaders amid fears Trump might attack to keep power, according to a new book
US intelligence reportedly concluded the government of Chinese President Xi Jinping was concerned about a potential US attack after the Jan. 6 riot
The book's revelations triggered a wave of concern that Milley had violated the chain of command, endangering national security and breaking norms of civilian control of the military
'Peril,' by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa is published by Simon & Schuster on Sept 21
Trump repeated his frequent condemnation of the Biden administration's handling of Afghanistan before returning the allegations in the new book, excerpts of which were published by CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Trump said: 'Milley made it up. he made this story about me attacking China.
Think of it, I'm going to attack China. What's the reason exactly, other than that they screw a certain trade?
'You don't attack them for that.'
And he described Milley's alleged behavior as 'a disgrace.'
'He was going to inform them when that will take place so they could be prepared,' he said.
'That is a treasonous statement and I cannot tell you how many people called up about it.'
Trump named Milley to the top military post in 2018. However their relationship soured and details of their clashes have seeped into public view with publication of several accounts of the final days of the Trump presidency.
The latest account details how Milley took a series of extraordinary actions after the Jan. 6th Capitol riot because he was concerned an 'unstable' President Trump might undertake military action in a desperate bid to stay in office.
Milley met with top military officials in the Pentagon two days after the MAGA riot and told them to keep him in the process for all military actions, including the use of nuclear weapons.
'If you get calls, no matter who they’re from, there’s a process here, there’s a procedure. No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I'm part of that procedure,' he told reportedly told them.
He feared Trump was suffering 'serious mental decline,' according to the book, which relies on Woodward's well-established methods of relying on 'deep background' information provided sources, some of them anonymously, as well as documents and interviews, to attempt to reconstruct events and conversations..
'The strict procedures are explicitly designed to avoid inadvertent mistakes or accident or nefarious, unintentional,
