Trump Pentagon Removes Portrait Of Former Joint Chiefs Chair Mark Milley Within Eight Days Of Inauguration, Resolving Long-Standing Concern That Federal Wall Space Continued To Honor A General The President Had Publicly Suggested Deserved Execution

WASHINGTON. The Pentagon this week removed the portrait of former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley from its corridors, federal officials confirmed, resolving a long-standing concern that one of the nation's most decorated postwar generals continued to occupy federal wall space that could be put to use for officers the President had not in 2023 suggested deserved execution.

The portrait, depicting Gen. Milley in dress uniform with the four stars of his command rank, had been hung following his retirement in September 2023, capping a 43-year career that included tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia, command of the U.S. Army, the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under two Presidents, and an unwelcome June 2020 public apology for having appeared in uniform during the President's photo-op outside St. John's Church. Pentagon officials described the removal as routine wall maintenance.

Within the same week, similar action was reported at the National Institutes of Health, where a portrait of former NIAID director Anthony Fauci was quietly removed from a federal lobby. Officials within the administration described both removals as part of a broader effort to ensure federal facilities celebrate only those public servants who have at no point expressed disagreement with the President of the United States.

Milley, whom the President in September 2023 publicly described as having committed "an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH," lost his security clearance, his security detail, and his wall space within an eight-day window of the inauguration. The general, who in his retirement remarks observed that the United States military does not take an oath "to a wannabe dictator," declined to comment.

The Pentagon vacancies are expected to be filled with portraits of officers the President has not previously suggested be hanged, while officials at NIH have been told to identify a public health figure who has spent his career silent in the presence of any President.

At press time, the Pentagon was awaiting guidance on whether to also remove the portraits of generals Milley had reported to, generals who had reported to Milley, generals who had once shaken Milley's hand, and generals whose careers had merely overlapped his.