Ex-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley declined to respond to former President Donald Trump's accusation that the general committed treason by telling China the United States would not attack the country following the 2020 election.

Trump said that the action by Milley was a "treasonous act" in a post on Truth Social last month. Milley, in an interview for NBC News's NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, dodged a direct question about the post.

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“I’m not going to respond to specific comments by former President Trump or anyone else. I’m a public figure, and I will put one step in front of the other to continue to defend that Constitution, period, full stop,” Milley told the outlet.

Trump had accused Milley of treason in the post, saying, "This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!"

Milley also said that reports about clashes with Trump were "overstated," saying that generals "don’t have clashes with presidents."

“Generals don’t have clashes with presidents. I think some of that is overstated, frankly, about clashes, like raised voices and arguments and all that kind of stuff,” Milley said. “I rendered to President Trump just like I rendered to President Biden. I give him various courses of action and options.”

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Milley retired as Joint Chiefs chairman at the end of last month after serving under Trump and President Joe Biden. He handed the baton off to Gen. Charles Q. Brown, who began his duties on Oct. 1.

The tenure of Milley was marked by his disagreements with Trump and the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which was widely panned as disastrous. Milley conceded in the interview that the war in Afghanistan "didn’t end the way anybody wanted it to end."