Top Trump general fears Trump will launch nuclear war, Woodward’s book reported | Books

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Before and after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the most senior U.S. general took steps to prevent Donald Trump from rogue and launching a nuclear war or an attack on China , according to excerpts of an eagerly awaited new Washington book. Post reporter Bob Woodward.

Watergate veterans Trump’s third book Peril, was written with Robert Costa, another Post reporter. This is due to be published next Tuesday. A week before the day of publication, Post and CNN extracts were published.

Following the first two books in the series, Fear and Anger, Peril covers the end of Trump’s presidency and the beginning of Joe Bidens ’first term in the White House.

Woodward and Costa describe Gen Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chief of staff, as certain that Trump went through a serious mental retardation after the election, which he insisted no evidence had fixed.

Milley thought the president had become all but manic, shouting at officials and building his own alternate truth about the endless election conspiracies.

According to the authors, Milley worried that Trump might be a rogue and told senior staff: You never know what a turning point of presidents is.

The Post said Milley made a couple of secret phone calls to his Chinese counterpart, Gen Li Zuocheng, to say Washington would not hurt Beijing.

A call took place on 30 October 2020 four days before the election. The rest took place on Jan. 8, two days after Trump supporters attacked Congress, seeking to overthrow that defeat.

On the first call, which was also prompted by tensions in the South China Sea and the source of the coronavirus pandemic, Milley told Li: I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything will be OK. We will not attack or perform any kinetic operation against you.

Milley also told the Chinese general that he would warn him if an attack was launched.

On the second call, after the riot at the Capitol, Milley told Li: we are 100% stable. All is well. But democracy can be flawed at times.

Trump was impeach a second time for inciting unrest, but was acquitted in Senate proceedings. More than 600 people have been charged with the attack, in which five people were killed. This weekend supporters of the charges will rally in Washington. Capitol police, who were buried Jan. 6, are preparing for increased security.

While Trump maintains a tight grip on the Republican base and the party in Congress, a House committee containing only two unknown Republicans continues to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.

Milley is a central player and clearly a major source in a slew of books about the Trump presidency that came out this summer.

In I Alone Can Fix It, Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker described Milley before the anti-Trump Capitol attack asking to use the military against anti-racism protesters while being intimidated the moment of the Reichstag, a coup of supporters of a president preaching the gospel of the Fhrer.

Milley was also shown reassurance to House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi that Trump would not use nuclear weapons. Susan Glasser of the New Yorker, whose own book will come out next year, reported that Milley worked to stop Trump’s attacks on Iran.

Woodward and Costa report that Pelosi told Milley: What am I telling you that if they can’t stop him from an attack on the Capitol, who knows what else he can do? And is there anyone in charge of the White House who does anything but kiss his fat ass all over it?

You know he’s crazy. He has been mad for a long time.

According to Woodward and Costa, Milley said: Madam Speaker, I agree with you on everything.

Woodward and Costa also said the general was aware of the similarities in the case of James Schlesinger, the secretary of defense who in 1974 took steps to guard against the president’s abuse of the nuclear arsenal while Richard Nixon fell a collapse in large part caused by Woodward, in his work with Carl Bernstein investigating the Watergate scandal.

Woodward and Costa also reported that concerns about Trump spread to other senior national security staff. Gina Haspel, then director of the CIA, reportedly told Milley: We’re going on a rightwing coup.

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