Trump last week accused Milley of "treason" in going behind his back to reassure his Chinese counterpart near the end of his term, suggesting that the Army general should be put to death.
"We are unique among the world's militaries. We don't take an oath to a country. We don't take an oath to a tribe. We don't take an oath to a religion. We don't take an oath to a king, or a queen, or to a tyrant or a dictator," Milley said at a ceremony in Virginia.
"And we don't take an oath to a wannabe dictator," he continued. "We don't take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America — and we're willing to die to protect it."
Milley, who Trump appointed in 2018, often clashed with the former president while serving under him, most notably over the incident in front of St. John's Church in Washington, D.C., in June 2020 during the protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd.
Milley had briefly appeared wearing combat fatigues alongside Trump as he walked across Lafayette Square to St. John's as Trump sought a photo-op.
The four-star general later apologized publicly for creating "a perception of the military involved in domestic politics" and that he "should not have been there" — an apology that angered Trump.
The other speakers at the ceremony never directly referred to Trump during the Friday affair at Joint Base-Myer Henderson Hall, instead lavishing Milley with praise for his service to the country across more than four decades in the military.
President Biden called Milley's partnership "invaluable," saying he was "unflinching in the face of danger." Biden recounted how Milley "once ran across a bridge booby-trapped with mines to stop two battle tanks evacuating wounded troops from driving across it."
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, meanwhile, called Milley "a scholar and a warrior."
"We respect him for his wit, but we love him for his heart. And he's thrown his whole heart into leading this tremendous joint force of soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, guardians," Austin said.
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
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