U.S. military leaders were so worried that then-President Donald Trump would attempt a coup in the waning days of his presidency that they considered resigning in the event Trump ordered them to do anything they felt was illegal, according to excerpts of an upcoming book obtained by CNN.
The book, I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year, by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, says the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff saw Trump as “the classic authoritarian leader with nothing to lose.”
“This is a Reichstag moment,” Gen. Mark Milley reportedly told aides. “The gospel of the Führer.”
Milley had become increasingly concerned about the personnel moves Trump had been making at the Pentagon after he lost the 2020 presidential election. He was worried that the termination of Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and the resignation of Bill Barr were signs that the wheels might be coming off the republic.
According to the book, the Joint Chiefs discussed resigning one at a time instead of carry out orders from Trump they felt were illegal.
In one scene described in the book, Milley confronted Trump chief-of-staff Mark Meadows about personnel decisions.
“What’s going on?,” asked Milley. “Are you guys getting rid of [FBI Director Christopher] Wray or [CIA director] Gina [Haspel]? Come on chief. What the hell is going on here? What are you guys doing?
“Don’t worry about it,” said Meadows. “Just some personnel moves.”
“Just be careful,” Milley said, seemingly as a warning.
After the January 6 insurrection Milley held a daily conference call with Meadows and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in an effort “collectively survey the horizon for trouble.”
A senior official told Leonnig and Rucker, “The general theme of these calls was, come hell or high water, there will be a peaceful transfer of power on January twentieth.”
“They may try but they can’t fucking succeed,” Milley told his subordinates at one point. “You can’t do this without the military. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We are the guys with the guns.”