Pentagon Removes General Milley’s Security Detail and Orders Review of His Record

• Jan. 28, 2025

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has told Gen. Mark A. Milley, the retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that he is removing his security detail, revoking his security clearance, and ordering an inspector general inquiry into his record, the Pentagon said late Tuesday.

Mr. Hegseth’s spokesman, John Ullyot, said in a statement that the secretary directed the investigation to determine whether “it is appropriate” to review the rank upon retirement for General Milley, who stood up to President Trump in his first term. Essentially, Mr. Hegseth is asking whether General Milley should be demoted.

“We have received the request and we are reviewing it,” Mollie Halpern, a spokeswoman for the acting Defense Department inspector general, said of the referral to examine General Milley’s actions as chairman.

The general retired in 2023, and at a ceremony marking the occasion he reminded troops that they took an oath to the Constitution and not to a “a king, or a queen, or to a tyrant or dictator, and we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator.” Senior Pentagon officials late Tuesday sought to cast Mr. Milley as an insubordinate political operator while in the chairman’s job.

“Undermining the chain of command is corrosive to our national security, and restoring accountability is a priority for the Defense Department under President Trump’s leadership,” Joe Kasper, Mr. Hegseth’s chief of staff, said in a statement late Tuesday.

General Milley could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Just days before General Milley’s retirement ceremony, Mr. Trump, then still planning a political comeback, suggested that the general had committed treason and should be put to death.