Top generals mobilized over fears Trump wants a post-election military coup, book details

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WASHINGTON – The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, expressed concern that then-President Donald Trump would attempt to use the military to attempt a coup after the 2020 election and vowed to prevent it.

That’s according to a new book by Washington Post reporters Phil Rucker and Carol Leonig, “On My Own Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Disastrous Final Year,” due out next week. The book, extracts from which NBC News has obtained, attributes accounts of private conversations between military and government officials to countless unnamed sources, including the aides involved.

Trump issued a statement Thursday denying he had considered any coup and criticized Milley, who said he only hired him because people who didn’t like him in turn hated the general.

“This is so ridiculous! Sorry to inform you, but elections are my ‘coup’ form, and if I’m going to make a coup, one of the last people I want to do is General Mark Milley,” Trump said. .

Colonel Dave Butler, Milley’s spokesman, declined to comment on the reports in the book.

Several events surrounding the final weeks of Trump’s presidency have been publicly shown, including the January 6 riots at the US Capitol, in which the former president’s supporters attacked the building in an effort to prevent an end to his defeat.

But a recent series of new books has detailed the behind-the-scenes efforts, including that many of those who have remained within the administration are concerned about the stability of the government.

The new details come with Trump’s re-emergence in public life, as he held recent rallies and increased the frequency of his media appearances and written statements. He was scheduled to meet Thursday with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, at a meeting the lawmaker’s office said would discuss the 2022 election.

According to the writers, “they may try” but will not succeed, he told his deputies about a possible coup. You can’t do this without the army. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We are the armed men.”

The authors wrote that Milley and his deputies feared Trump’s inner circle would advise him to take precipitous military action such as launching an armed attack, rapidly withdrawing US forces from Afghanistan, or deploying forces in a manner linked to the outcome of the election.

The book says that Milley and the heads of each branch of the military began “informally planning how a presidential order would prevent the use of the military in a manner they considered unlawful, dangerous, and unwise.”

The authors wrote that Milley, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, concerned about potential disruptions, began making regular calls.

A senior official told the authors that the subject of their calls was to ensure that there would be a peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden on January 20.

On January 7, the day after the attack on the Capitol, the three spoke, describing Trump as emotional and angry and asserting that they lacked other allies besides Pat Cipollone, then White House counsel.

Milley attended the inauguration of Joe Biden, seated behind former President Barack Obama.

I asked the former First Lady, Michelle Obama, how Millie was feeling.

“No one has a bigger smile than me today,” the authors wrote. “You can’t see it under my mask, but I do.”

Rebecca Chabad is a congressional reporter for NBC News, based in Washington.

Lee Ann Caldwell, Jesse Rodriguez and Courtney Cope contributed.

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