The Pentagon on Monday removed a portrait of Gen. Mark A. Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, from a hallway in the building filled with paintings of all his predecessors.
The decision to remove the portrait was an opening salvo by the new administration against a military establishment that President Trump has attacked for various perceived infractions.
The portrait of General Milley, now retired, was drawn up last week, in the final days of the Biden administration. Less than two hours after Mr. Trump took the oath of office, Pentagon officials had withdrawn it. A US official said “the White House” had ordered the withdrawal. The official declined to comment further.
Mr. Trump called General Milley a “woke train wreck.” The president complained in particular about the general’s calls to his Chinese counterpart during the final weeks of Mr. Trump’s first term, an act that the president, in an article on Truth Social, called “so egregious that, in the past, the punishment would have been DEATH!
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. issued a preemptive pardon to General Milley before he left office.
Dismantling the general’s portrait is unprecedented; The position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is considered apolitical.
