The highest ranking military officer in the nation departed from long-standing norms by arriving for a meeting at the White House in combat attire. Perhaps someday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley will share his reason for making this atypical style statement. And, I don’t think “My only blue suit was at the cleaners,” would cut it. However, there might be a more cogent explanation lurking between the lines of Dexter Filkins’ June 6th offering in The New Yorker.
Milley made this extraordinary wardrobe statement on the day the president stood in the Rose Garden threatening to call in U.S. armed forces to restore order to American streets. Simultaneously, the Park Police and National Guard troops were following orders to “expand the perimeter” surrounding the White House. And, to affect that result, a crowd of peaceful protesters were subjected to tear gas and pelted with rubber bullets, so that Fat Elvis POTUS could waddle over to St. John’s church to get his picture taken holding aloft an upside-down Bible.
Apparently, Filkins reported,
an earlier confab between Trump and Milley hadn’t gone particularly well.
When President Bone Spur floated his desire to dispatch soldiers into America’s cities to quell the ongoing unrest, America’s Top General put up vigorous resistance.
A fierce, heated shouting match ensued.
One former senior defense official told Filkins that this confrontation was inevitable. Reputedly, Milley displays a similar temperament to the Commander in Chief. Like Trump, the General is a well-known bully. So, a pair of barrel-chested belligerents traded some barbed words at the presidential palace. Maybe that explains why the General came dressed for battle. Fully aware of how his reality showman boss is completely hung up on image, maybe Milley donned his GI Joe duds to seize an advantage over the pompadoured Jack O’Lantern in the empty suit.
Milley might not have been prepared, however...
to be used as a prop
in one of the most absurd photo ops in modern history.
Since that debacle, Trump has received some unabashed verbal spankings from highly respected former military elites — notably, Mullen, Kelly, Mattis, and Powell. Milley, too, has caught considerable flak for trick-or-treating in the streets of DC in his soldier-boy costume.
Filkins’ sources indicate there is no appetite for military intervention within the Pentagon, especially action that might reek of politically motivated chicanery.
However, the senior defense official did offer Filkins one possible scenario that seems troubling. Should Trump lose in November in a close vote, he could refuse to concede the election. And, although his lawful presidency would end on January 20, 2021, he could call upon a friendly governor to send state National Guard troops to surround the White House.
Talk about expanding the perimeter! Should that shit show manifest, Milley will have to bring more to the party than brash language and camo fatigues.
Rand Bishop (Gimpy Ol’ Norman) is the author of TREK: My Peace Pilgrimage in Search of a Kinder America.