Trump Claims He Never Planned to Start War With China, Says Milley Should Be Tried for 'Treason'

Trump's remarks come after the September release of journalist Bob Woodward and Robert Costa's book "Peril," which claimed that in Trump's final months in office, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued backchannel assurances to China, which he defended as "perfectly within his duties" before Congress.

Former President Donald Trump stated on Friday that he "never" considered attacking China, adding that General Mark Milley "should be tried for treason" if he did call the Chinese military to pledge an early warning in case of an attack.

Trump, rather unexpectedly, issued a statement via e-mail to reporters and his Telegram channel, commenting on the September scandal over the fact of Costa and Woodward's book release and that Milley, the top US general, admitted to giving such assurances to the People's Liberation Army's General Li Zuocheng during a House committee hearing in September.

"Does anybody really believe that longtime Con Man Bob Woodward, and his lightweight lapdog assistant Robert Costa, are implying in their book of fiction that I was planning to go to war with China, but that one of the dumber generals in the military called the Chinese to tell them that he will inform them if this action proceeds further," Trump said.

According to the former president, "Milley may have called, but if so, he should be tried for treason."

"I never had even a thought of going to war with China, other than the war I was winning, which was on TRADE," Trump stressed. "To make up stories like this and to sell it to the public is disgraceful. I watched that craggy smug face of Woodward as he ‘bullshits’ the public and said to myself, ‘I wonder if history will really believe this stuff?’ How do you get your reputation back? I was the only President in decades to not get us into a war — I got us out of wars!"

In what might be perceived as his typical teasing of a potential presidential election rematch in 2024, Trump added that the US "has been taken over by Scammers and Hoaxsters," and it has to be taken back.

The former president blasted his rumored intentions to start a war with China as "ridiculous," noting that some of the previous allegations, such as the "Russia, Russia, Russia Scam" have been rebutted as "a FAKE Democrat/Crooked Hillary Plot."

"It’s incredible that someone is even allowed to write this stuff. We no longer talk about greatness for our Country, everything is about political investigations, hoaxes, and scams," Trump lamented in his statement, concluding it with his well-known slogan of promising to "Make America Great Again!"

Back in September, the 45th had already addressed reports of Milley speaking with Chinese officials on two separate occasions to discuss the likelihood of a US assault. Trump at the time said that although it was "hard to believe" that Milley backchannelled with the Chinese, it would be treason, if he did.

"For the record, I never even thought of attacking China—and China knows that," Trump noted about the war allegations.

And Milley revealed shortly after in September that he promised his Chinese colleague that if Trump ordered an assault on China, he would warn him in advance, reassuring his Chinese counterpart that the US was "not going to attack you."

Milley first spoke to Li on October 20, 2020, and in that call, he assured the Chinese general that he would "call you ahead of time," in case the US was to launch an attack.

Milley called again on January 8, two days after a crowd of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol to prevent the Electoral College from certifying Joe Biden's victory. On that occasion, he told Li that although "democracy can be sloppy sometimes," everything was "fine."

Also in September this year, Milley's office noted in a statement that given the general "regularly communicates with Chiefs of Defense across the world, including with China and Russia," the calls with Li "and others in October and January were in keeping with these duties and responsibilities conveying reassurance in order to maintain strategic stability."

Despite the public outcry, Biden has made his thoughts towards Milley quite apparent, saying that he had "great confidence in General Milley."