Milley says the military doesn't swear oath to a 'wannabe dictator' in apparent swipe at Trump

In an impassioned and at times furious speech, departing Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley defiantly proclaimed that the US military does not swear an oath to a "wannabe dictator."

It was a bitter and pointed swipe that appeared unmistakably targeted at former President Donald Trump, who has in recent days accused Milley of "treason" and suggested that he should be put to death for his conduct surrounding Trump's bid in 2021 to remain in office despite losing the presidential election.

"We are unique among the world's militaries," Milley said. "We don't take an oath to a country, we don't take an oath to a tribe, we don't take an oath to a religion. We don't take an oath to a king, or a queen, or a tyrant or a dictator."

"And we don't take an oath to a wannabe dictator," he spat. "We take an oath to the Constitution and we take an oath to the idea that is America - and we're willing to die to protect it."

It's a line Milley has delivered before, including last year at the Reserve Officers' Training Corps commissioning at Princeton, his alma mater. But he chose to use it Friday standing alongside the president, during a national address - his last as the president's top military adviser and the nation's top general.

Although he was appointed by Trump in 2018, Milley has in many ways been shadow-boxing with the former president since the summer of 2020, when Milley appeared briefly alongside Trump as he walked to a church outside of Lafayette Square for a photo op during the George Floyd protests. Milley, who was in uniform, later apologized publicly for "creat[ing] a perception of the military involved in domestic politics." The apology outraged Trump.

Their relationship became even more contentious in the wake of the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Milley took a number of extraordinary actions to safeguard against what he feared were Trump's more outlandish instincts, as well as the general chaos of the moment.