General Mark Milley, had said several months earlier: “There is no role for the US military in determining the outcome of an American election.” The DOD statement—which was factual and should have been unobjectionable—enraged Donald Trump. He instructed the director of White House personnel, Johnny McEntee, to call Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, apparently to convey the message that if any further statements like this were made, the officials would be fired.
