Trump Campaign Responds to Mark Milley Reportedly Calling Him ‘Fascist’

Donald Trump’s campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung blasted retired U.S. Army General Mark Milley after it was reported that he described the former president as “fascist to the core.”
Milley’s remark was reported by The Independent and other media outlets after it was included in legendary journalist Bob Woodward’s new book, War.
“He is the most dangerous person ever. I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is now the most dangerous person to this country,” Milley, who was nominated by Trump to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2018 and served in the role from 2019 to 2023, reportedly told Woodward.
Cheung told Newsweek via email on Saturday morning that Milley is a “woke train-wreck,” describing Woodward as a “washed-up fiction writer.”
“Woke train-wreck Mark Milley clearly suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome and it’s no surprise he pals around with a washed-up fiction writer like Bob Woodward to peddle lies and misinformation,” Cheung said. “If Milley spent this much time and effort doing his job, maybe the Afghanistan debacle would have never happened.”
Newsweek reached out via email late Saturday morning to Georgetown University where Milley is a distinguished fellow in residence for comment from him.
Cheung was referring to the 13 American service members killed during the Afghanistan War withdrawal in 2021. In late August of that year, a suicide bomber attacked Kabul’s airport as U.S. troops and Afghans desperately tried to evacuate the country. Over 170 Afghans were killed alongside the 13 U.S. service members. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
While the Pentagon concluded that the deaths at Kabul’s airport were not preventable, some blamed the Biden administration for a chaotic evacuation that should have started earlier than it did.
Cheung’s comments echoed past remarks made by Trump on social media. In September 2023, Trump said Milley “led perhaps the most embarrassing moment in American history with his grossly incompetent implementation of the withdrawal from Afghanistan,” adding that “this guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck.”
In August 2022, journalists Susan Glasser and Peter Baker shared an excerpt from their then-forthcoming book The Divider in The New Yorker, which included a reported never-sent draft of a resignation letter from Milley to Trump.
The draft letter was dated June 8, 2020, a week after police used tear gas and batons to clear Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters and journalists so that Trump could do a photo op at Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. Milley was there that day and apologized for his role in it afterward.
“The events of the last couple weeks have caused me to do deep soul-searching, and I can no longer faithfully support and execute your orders as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is my belief that you were doing great and irreparable harm to my country,” Milley wrote in the resignation letter draft. “I believe that you have made a concerted effort over time to politicize the United States military. I thought that I could change that. I’ve come to the realization that I cannot, and I need to step aside and let someone else try to do that.”
Milley mentioned fascism in the draft letter when he mentioned the Greatest Generation who fought in World War II.
“That generation, like every generation, has fought against that, has fought against fascism, has fought against Nazism, has fought against extremism…you [Trump] subscribe to many of the principles that we fought against. And I cannot be a party to that. It is with deep regret that I hereby submit my letter of resignation,” Milley wrote.
During Milley’s retirement speech in September 2023, he said that servicemembers “don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator,” but to the U.S. Constitution. While he didn’t refer to Trump by name, it appeared to be a veiled reference to him.
Trump called Milley “slow moving and thinking” on social media after the general’s apparent “wannabe dictator” dig.
Update 10/12/24, 11:39 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information. The headline for this article has also been changed.