A portrait of former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley has vanished from the Pentagon barely two weeks after being installed, Politico reported on Monday.
New Pentagon officials "did not explain the portrait’s removal, which the Biden administration hung less than two weeks ago in the spot with other former Pentagon chairs," reported Paul McLeary.
However, Milley has been a frequent focus of newly inaugurated President Donald Trump's wrath. Trump has called him a "loser" who is responsible for America's defeat in Afghanistan and even suggested he could be executed for treason.
Trump's rage against Milley, whom he appointed to the Joint Chiefs in his previous administration, appears to date back to reporting that the retired four-star general privately reached out to his counterparts in China near the end of 2020, and assured them the military would not allow Trump to launch a war against them as a pretext for preventing the peaceful transfer of power to former President Joe Biden.
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On his last day in office, Biden surprised many observers by issuing a pre-emptive pardon for Milley, to constrain the incoming Trump administration from criminally investigating or prosecuting him on a political pretext. He also issued pardons for some members of his family, and for the members of Congress who worked on the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, who have also been common targets of Trump's wrath. This led to an eruption of anger from GOP lawmakers, who vowed to pursue investigations of these individuals regardless.
The removal of the Milley portrait caused a stir and speculation on social media, with CBS News reporter Jim LaPorta writing, "Reminds me of when the Navy hid the USS John McCain so President Trump wouldn’t see it on his trip to Japan."