Former president Donald Trump issued a bizarre memo days after he lost the election that his interim defense secretary ignored.
The ousted president signed a one-page memo without the knowledge of White House counsel Pat Cipollone or national security adviser Robert O'Brien directing then-Defense secretary Christopher Miller to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, Africa, Germany, Iraq and Syria, reported Axios.
"This is what the president wants you to do," said trusted aide John McEntee to retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, who was offered a post as senior adviser to Miller.
Macgregor told McEntee, who was head of the presidential personnel office, that he doubted all of those things could be accomplished by Jan. 20.
"Then do as much as you can," McEntee told him.
Miller himself was astonished when the memo landed on his desk two days later, on Nov. 11, and top military brass were appalled when news of the order traveled through the Pentagon, as Trump worked to overturn his election loss to Joe Biden.
Trump was ultimately talked out of the unilateral order by Pentagon officials who told him the Taliban could take Kabul in the waning days of his presidency.
Biden in April announced the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11.
