Former President Donald Trump blasted Gen. Mark Milley in front of a crowd at his Mar-a-Lago resort, condemning the country’s most senior military figure as a ‘f*****g idiot’ for the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
It came during a 15-minute, foul-mouthed rant on Saturday evening to a group from Turning Point Action, a conservative organization founded by activist Charlie Kirk
He criticized the U.S. exit strategy from Afghanistan, describing how he wanted to bring home all American military gear.
‘I said, the moment we get out, I want every nut, every bolt, every screw … we’re taking everything,’ Trump said on Saturday, according to video shared on social media.
But Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told him it was cheaper to leave the equipment than to fly it back.
‘That’s when I realized he was a f*****g idiot!’ Trump said to raucous laughter.
Trump has repeatedly accused President Joe Biden of leaving behind $85 billion of weapons, vehicles and other equipment.
Former President Donald Trump spoke at an event at Mar-a-Lago in which he dismissed Gn. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as a ‘f***ing idiot’ for the Afghan exit
Trump has repeatedly criticized Milley for the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and for reports that the country’s most senior military officer feared Trump might launch a coup in order to hold on to power after losing November’s election
Milley and Trump in happier times at the 119th Army-Navy football game at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. December 8, 2018
In fact, the $85 billion figure includes all military assistance to Afghanistan delivered in the past 20 years – including training, salaries and other infrastructure cost.
Even so, the Taliban shared video on social media of helicopters and other vehicles they captured after American forces left.
They included Black Hawk helicopters and an A-29 Super Tucano attack aircraft. U.S. officials said the equipment was left in an inoperable state.
During his appearance on Saturday, Trump also branded journalists and the media as ‘corrupt, crooked, b*****ds’.
He even appeared to revel in his reputation for adding to mistrust of the press.
‘The country is at a very important, dangerous place. We have no press. The press is so corrupt, we don’t have a press’ the former president ranted to those gathered at the event.
‘If there’s a story about us, about Republicans they make it a bad story. They make it the worst story,’ adding journalists are ‘crooked b*****ds’ and ‘the most dishonest group of people.’
The comments were met with peals of laughter from those who had gathered to listen.
Trump went on to boast of his ‘tanking the approval ratings of the press’ of which he said he was ‘very proud’.
Trump went on to boast about being responsible for the press’ approval ratings plummeting
The event was being held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, pictured, in Palm Beach which he has owned since 1985
The former president said such approval ratings began to plummet from the moment he announced he was running in 2015.
‘Right now, they [the press] have a lower approval rating than Congress,’ Trump went on. ‘So I’m very happy.’
During his seemingly impromptu speech, Trump warned that the country was veering towards communism ‘if we don’t get the press back in this country.’
While he was president, Trump continually attempted to sow distrust in the media and would routinely berate journalists either in person or over Twitter branding them as ‘fake news’ or the ‘enemy of the people.’
Although Trump said that 95 per cent of the American public had confidence in the press in 2015, a report by Axios suggests such statistics are not correct
About four in 10 Americans had a ‘fair amount’ of trust and confidence in the media in a Gallup poll of 1,000 people at that time.
Trump also went on to rant about how the election was rigged with ‘hundreds of millions of mail-in ballots’ counted more than once.
His repeated attempts to challenge President Biden’s victory have proven unsuccessful.