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In a statement on Thursday, former President Donald Trump said seven words democratic constituents hope to never hear a political leader say: “If I was going to do a coup.”
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Trump was referring to General Mark Milley’s comments about the former president’s actions during the Capitol riot, detailed in newly released excerpts from “I Alone Can Fix It,” a bombshell book about the last year of the Trump presidency, by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker.
In the book, Leonnig and Rucker reported that Milley was concerned about preventing Trump from taking over the government in a style similar to the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany.
“This is a Reichstag moment,” Milley, according to the book, told his staff, a reference to the 1933 fire at the German Parliament that helped lead to the rise of Adolf Hitler’s regime. “The gospel of the Führer.”
“You can’t do this without the military,” Milley reportedly added. “You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with the guns.”
In his statement Thursday, Trump denied the accusation, calling it “ridiculous,” and bashed Milley in the process.
“I never threatened, or spoke about, to anyone, a coup of our Government,” Trump wrote. Then, he added, “If I was going to do a coup, one of the last people I would want to do it with is General Mark Milley.”
Trump also criticized Milley for apologizing about walking with the president to St. John’s Church last summer in Washington, D.C., during peaceful Black Lives Matter protests.
“I lost respect for Milley when we walked together to St. John’s Church,” he wrote. “The following day, Milley choked like a dog in front of the fake news … He apologized profusely, making it a big story, instead of saying I am proud to walk with and protect the president of the United States. Had he said that, it would have all been over, no big deal, but I saw at that moment he had no courage or skill, certainly not the type of person I would be talking ‘coup’ with. I’m not into coups!”
