In another clip of the Fox News interview taped yesterday with President Trump, he again defended his St. John’s photo op, downplaying any tension with Gen. Mark Milley, who spoke out about the situation Thursday, as well as Defense Sec. Mark Esper.
“I think it was a beautiful picture. And I’ll tell ya I think Christians think it was a beautiful picture,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner.
He said it was “fine” if Milley and Esper distanced themselves, going on to tout his military relationships.
“If that’s the way they feel I think that’s fine. I have good relationships with the military. I have rebuilt our military. I spent $2.5 trillion, nobody else did when we took it over from president Obama and Biden the military was a joke. The military was depleted. They had planes that were 50, 60 years old. They had old broken equipment. We had no ammunition. We had no ammunition. Now we have the greatest military we have ever had,” he said.
What this is all about: Milley apologized for appearing in a photo-op with President Trump following the forceful dispersal of peaceful protesters outside the White House last week, calling the move a “mistake” and saying his presence “created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”
Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a pre-recorded speech released on Thursday that he regrets accompanying Trump on the walk from the White House to St. John’s Church last week where he was photographed wearing his combat uniform and moving with the President’s entourage through Lafayette Square.
The images provoked a swift wave of criticism from lawmakers and several senior former military officials who said they risked dragging the traditionally apolitical military into a contentious domestic political situation.
