The Pentagon pulled down a portrait of retired US Army Gen. and frequent Donald Trump critic Mark Milley just hours after the 47th president’s Monday inauguration in Washington, DC.
The portrait of the now-retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had a short-lived run in the hallway filled with paintings of Milley’s predecessors — it had only been 10 days before, in the waning days of the Biden administration, The Post confirmed.
The action was unprecedented since the military leaders are considered apolitical, according to the New York Times.
A US official would only tell the outlet that “the White House” had ordered the move.
Trump and Milley have had a contentious relationship since the president picked Milley as the Joint Chiefs chairman during his first term in December 2018.
“I am pleased to announce my nomination of four-star Gen. Mark Milley, chief of Staff of the United States Army — as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replacing Gen. Joe Dunford, who will be retiring,” Trump tweeted at the time.
“I am thankful to both of these incredible men for their service to our Country!”
But the love-fest didn’t last long, souring in mid-2020 when Milley apologized for attending a Lafayette Square photo-op during the George Floyd protests, according to The Independent.
Law enforcement used tear gas to clear away peaceful protesters in the park — a move that earned swift and strong condemnation as an affront to the First Amendment and a clear use of excessive force.
Milley — a native of Massachusetts — was also concerned about Trump’s refusal to concede after a clear loss in the 2020 election and worried about a potential coup.
Trump, in turn, has called the Princeton graduate a “moron,” a “woke train wreck” and said he was “slow-moving and thinking.”
Biden issued a preemptive pardon for Milley just before leaving office out of fear that Trump would look to prosecute him.
