Trump calls Milley a ‘loser’ after Afghanistan withdrawal hearing

Former president Donald Trump on Wednesday called retired Gen. Mark Milley, former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a “loser” after a House Foreign Affairs hearing on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“Mark Milley is a loser who shamed us in Afghanistan and elsewhere!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Milley has been known to be critical of Trump, even calling him a “wannabe dictator”. Trump has in turn accused Milley in the past of treason.

On Tuesday, Milley responded to Trump’s September post at the House Foreign Affairs hearing on the Afghanistan withdrawal, saying he doesn’t “agree with the comments, but it’s a free country, and people can say what they want.”

“With all due respect, guys, I’m here for the families of Abbey Gate,” Milley said, in reference to the 13 U.S. soldiers killed in an explosion during the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal in August 2021.

On Tuesday, the top two generals who oversaw the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 said that the chaotic evacuation, which resulted in the deaths of over 100 Afghans and 13 US service members, was ordered too late.

Retired Generals Milley and Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie blamed delayed decision-making by the State Department for the rushed and violent airlift out of Kabul’s airport as the Islamic Emirate took over the country.

“The fundamental mistake, fundamental flaw was the timing of the State Department’s call of the [noncombatant evacuation operation], I think that was too slow and too late,” said Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“There’s a lot of other mistakes that are made along the way … but I think that was key, I think that was fundamental.”