Milley's Portrait Comes Down

Retired Gen. Mark Milley received an eleventh-hour preemptive pardon from the outgoing president, then was insulted less than two hours into the administration of the incoming one. The official portrait of the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was removed Monday from a Pentagon corridor where paintings of all of his predecessors hang, the New York Times reports. An official said only that the order came from the White House. The portrait had just been unveiled on Jan. 12, per the AP.

When Trump named Milley to the post in 2018, he called the general a "great gentleman" and a "great soldier." That view changed beginning in 2020 when Milley voiced regret for walking with Trump across Lafayette Square to St. John's Episcopal Church, per ABC News, just after police and National Guard troops had cleared protesters. Trump also was angered by a phone conversation Milley had with his Chinese counterpart, and the new president has since suggested Milley be executed for committing treason. The position of chairman of the Joint Chiefs has been considered apolitical, and taking such a portrait down is unprecedented, per the Times. (More Trump inauguration stories.)