Jan. 29 (UPI) — Newly minted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stripped the personal security detail and security clearance of former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley on Tuesday.
Milley, a longtime critic of President Donald Trump, will also be under investigation to determine if he should be demoted from a four-star general to three stars for actions to “undermine the chain of command” while serving under Trump in his first term.
“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,” Joe Kasper, the Pentagon’s chief of staff, said Tuesday.
Portraits of Milley have already been removed from two locations at the Pentagon.
Milley’s break with Trump, who first named him as chief of the joint chiefs, came in 2020 when he apologized for accompanying the president for a photo op at Lafayette Square near the White House during social unrest in connection with the death of George Floyd.
Milley was one of several former government officials and Biden family members who received preemptive pardons from outgoing President Joe Biden earlier this month, shielding them from federal prosecution.
Trump said in 2023 that Milley should be executed because he had alleged improper communications with Chinese leaders.
“[Milley] was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States,” Trump wrote on social media then. “This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”
