WASHINGTON — According to the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth informed former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley that he ordered a review of the retired general’s actions to determine whether his rank should be reevaluated and that he was rescinding his security detail and clearance.
The Defense Department’s inspector general was instructed by Hegseth, who began his tenure at the Pentagon on Monday, to investigate “the facts and circumstances” surrounding Milley’s actions “so that the Secretary may determine whether it is appropriate to reopen his military grade review determination,” according to Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot.
Although Defense Department chief of staff Joe Kasper stated that restoring accountability is a top goal for the Defense Department under President Trump’s leadership and that undermining the chain of command is detrimental to our national security, the statement did not give specific justifications for the actions.
A request for comment from NBC News was not immediately answered by Milley.
During his first tenure, Milley had been chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under both former President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump, and he disagreed with Trump on a number of topics.
Milley expressed regret in 2020 for going with Trump to a White House photo op in front of a church after the president had ordered the violent dispersal of demonstrators protesting George Floyd’s death.
After learning that Chinese officials believed the United States was going to attack their nation, Milley called Gen. Li Zuocheng, the chief of China’s military, toward the conclusion of Trump’s first term to reassure him that the United States had no plans to engage in military conflict with China.
Although he and other military officers later claimed to have advised the president to retain a small force of troops in Afghanistan until the date for withdrawal, Milley also played a significant role in the chaotic U.S. exit from the nation under Biden.
Biden stated that Milley was one of the several preemptive pardons he granted just hours before Trump’s inauguration last week in an effort to shield him from political reprisals under the Trump administration.
Officials were unable to provide an explanation for the abrupt removal of a portrait of Milley from the Pentagon’s walls last week. Overnight, a portrait of him as army chief of staff was also removed, and the holes on the wall where it was attached were painted over and covered.