Top general feared Trump's 'brownshirt' supporters would stage a coup
In Phil Rucker and Carol Leonnig's new book, I Alone Can Fix It, spends ample time talking about President Donald Trump's White House through the eyes of several people watching as the end drew near. One such person was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Mark Milley, who revealed the horrifying scene that unfolded in the final days of the Trump administration, the Washington Post reported.
The Joint Chiefs had a moment where they actually discussed resigning, one-by-one if they were ordered by Trump to do something illegal or dangerous. Trump grew increasingly volatile as Jan. 20 grew closer and the
"It was a kind of Saturday Night Massacre in reverse," the Washington Post writers describe, according to a CNN excerpt.
It's a shocking tale, in large part because military members don't disobey orders, especially from the commander-in-chief.
Milley was afraid that Trump was about to stage his own coup.
"They may try, but they're not going to f*cking succeed," he said. "You can't do this without the military. You can't do this without the CIA and the FBI. We're the guys with the guns."
He attended a briefing about the "Million MAGA March" that was planned in Washington to protest Trump's loss.
"Milley said he feared an American equivalent of 'brownshirts in the streets,' alluding to the paramilitary forces that protected Nazi rallies and enabled Hitler's ascent.
Many of Trump's supporters assumed that the military would have their back if they did stage an attack. Interestingly, there were many military members and veterans who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, despite their oaths to uphold the Constitution.
Two days after Jan. 6 Milley and Pelosi spoke about the attacks, and she reminded him of the oath he swore. She asked him to "review precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating war by ordering a nuclear strike." It's a fact that many were pontificating about in columns and on cable news, but behind the scenes, the top leaders of the United States were genuinely fearful that Trump might try to launch nuclear weapons to stay in the White House.
"Ma'am, I guarentee you that we have checks and balances in the system, Milley said. He then walked her through the process.
Milley described "a stomach-churning" feeling when he heard Trump spout the complaints about the 2020 "election fraud." Milley drew "a comparison to the 1933 attack on Germany's parliament building that Hitler used as a pretext to establish a Nazi dictatorship," the Post described.
"This is a Reichstag moment," Milley told his aides. "The gospel of the Führer."
Milley's aides deny this, however.