Joint Chiefs Chairman Had to Tell Trump the Military Wouldn’t ‘Just Shoot’ Protesters: Report
Gen. Mark Milley would reportedly push back on Trump’s outbursts of “Crack their skulls!” and “Just shoot them!” in reference to protesters.

Drew Angerer/Getty
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff rejected multiple demands for violent military intervention from former President Donald Trump in response to last year’s George Floyd protests, according to a new book. Michael Bender, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, writes in Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost that Gen. Mark Milley would push back on Trump’s outbursts of “Crack their skulls!” and “Just shoot them!” The former president would reportedly point approvingly to videos of municipal police using violence against protesters, asking the military to do the same and more. Milley found himself in the news earlier this week when he gave a fiery response to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on the subject of critical race theory at a congressional hearing. Milley said it was a valuable subject to study, to Gaetz’s visible chagrin.
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