Toward the end of his tenure, Gen. Mark Milley, who was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2019 to 2023, told Bob Woodward of The Washington Post that Donald Trump was a fundamental threat to the safety and integrity of the United States.
“No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump,” the general told Woodward. “Now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country.”
Let’s stop for a second.
It is simply extraordinary that the nation’s top general would tell anyone, much less one of the most famous reporters in the world, that the former president of the United States was a “fascist” — a “fascist to the core,” even — and a threat to the constitutional order. There is no precedent for such a thing in American history — no example of another time when a high-ranking leader of the nation’s armed forces felt compelled to warn the public of the danger posed by its once and perhaps future chief executive.
More important than the novelty of Milley’s statement is the reality that he’s right.
News of the general’s 2023 assessment broke last Friday. That afternoon, and as if to prove the point, Trump dove even deeper into the rhetorical abyss, telling his followers that he would deploy an 18th-century law to “liberate” the country from immigrants once and for all. “I make you this vow: November 5th, 2024 will be LIBERATION DAY in America,” Trump wrote on X.
“I will rescue Aurora and every town that has been invaded and conquered — and we will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them the hell OUT OF OUR COUNTRY.” And “to expedite removals of this savage gang,” he continued, “I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American Soil.”
To be clear, the Alien Enemies Act — one of the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts signed by President John Adams — does not distinguish between “legal” and “illegal” immigrants and foreign nationals, a distinction that did not exist at the time of passage. This means that any immigrant deemed an “enemy alien” by the Trump administration could be subject to arrest and removal by the federal government.