General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, lambasted Donald Trump over his leadership style and personal values in a draft resignation letter he never sent to the former president while he was still serving in the White House, according to an excerpt from an upcoming book.
“It is my belief that you were doing great and irreparable harm to my country,” Milley wrote in one version of the letter, according to “The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021,” by authors Susan B. Glasser and Peter Baker. The excerpt from the book, which is slated for a September release, was published in the New Yorker Monday.
The passage highlighted the ways in which Milley and his colleagues in the Pentagon “handled the national security threat posed by their own Commander-in-Chief,” the excerpt said.
“I believe that you have made a concerted effort over time to politicize the United States military,” Milley continued in his letter. “I thought that I could change that. I’ve come to the realization that I cannot, and I need to step aside and let someone else try to do that.”
Milley wrote the letter — along with several other drafts — in his office at the Pentagon in the days following the incident at Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020, where law enforcement fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protestors who had been rallying against police brutality.
After Lafayette Square was cleared, Trump walked across the area to pose for a photograph in front of St. John’s Church while holding a bible. Milley took part in the walk with Trump, a move that was widely criticized.
He later apologized, saying that he “should not have been there” and that his presence “created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.” Associates said at the time Milley considered stepping down from his role in the administration.
“You are using the military to create fear in the minds of the people — and we are trying to protect the American people,” he wrote in his draft resignation letter. “I cannot stand idly by and participate in that attack, verbally or otherwise, on the American people. The American people trust their military and they trust us to protect them against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and our military will do just that.”
He went on to accuse Trump of not embodying the ideals outlined in the Constitution — particularly the notion that “all men and women are created equal” — and of “ruining the international order, and causing significant damage to our country overseas, that was fought for so hard by the Greatest Generation that they instituted in 1945.”
“That generation, like every generation, has fought against that, has fought against fascism, has fought against Nazism, has fought against extremism,” Milley wrote. “You don’t understand what the war was all about. In fact, you subscribe to many of the principles that we fought against. And I cannot be a party to that. It is with deep regret that I hereby submit my letter of resignation.”
Shannon Larson can be reached at shannon.larson@globe.com. Follow her @shannonlarson98.