The Washington Post (WaP0) distorted key details of former President Donald Trump’s clashes with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley in a farewell article.
Milley is set to retire at the end of September after his four-year tenure as chairman. Milley, who has seen his relationship with the former president sour, was given quite the sendoff by WaPo, which decided to either leave out or misrepresent the real reasons the two clashed.
Trump reacted to Milley’s upcoming retirement in a Truth Social post, saying the departure “will be a time for all citizens of the USA to celebrate!”
“This guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States,” Trump continued.
The WaPo story, however, said Trump “falsely stated that phone calls, authorized by Trump administration officials at the time, in which Milley sought to reassure Chinese officials that the United States was stable during the presidential transition were a ‘treasonous act.'”
But what really happened was that Milley admitted to Congress that he was willing to give his Chinese counterparts forewarning if the U.S. was going to attack Beijing.
”I said, ‘hell, I’ll call you. But we’re not going to attack you,’” Milley told the House Armed Services Committee regarding a talk he had with Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army.
The WaPo story went on to discuss so-called George Floyd “protests” that saw looting, rioting, destruction, murder and violence. Trump called for the military to be put on the streets to stop the chaos but Milley rejected the idea, instead suggesting local law enforcement – who were being attacked – should do the job.
WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 04: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley walks through Statuary Hall to the House Chamber for the State of the Union on February 4, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)
“Weeks of tension finally boiled over on June 1, 2020, when law enforcement personnel abruptly and aggressively cleared hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Lafayette Square outside the White House, ahead of Trump and other officials marching to a church across the street in a show of force. Among them were Esper and, for a time, Milley,” the WaPo wrote.
The problem with this paragraph though is that police didn’t clear Lafayette Square for Trump to visit. (RELATED: Very Credible, Super Professional Media Outlets Fail To Amend False Headlines After IG Report)
Instead, officers cleared the park days after they planned to build a fence around the park to protect officers. Trump’s visit was coincidental, an inspector general report found.
The WaPo story made absolutely zero mention of the report. Perhaps even worse is that WaPo reported on the inspector general’s report themselves, clearly aware that the park was not cleared specifically for Trump.
But hey, at least Milley can walk away from the job knowing he’s got WaPo to cover for him.