General Mark Milley has been expunged from the Pentagon wall of chiefs

Revenge is sweet, albeit sometimes petty. I believe it was a serious possibility that within a few days or weeks of becoming president again, Donald Trump would have ordered a Justice Department investigation into General Mark Milley who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during his first term of office. This is why outgoing President Joe Biden arranged for General Milley to be pardoned for a crime he never actually committed. It was all about his strained relationship with Trump - he was quoted as saying all kinds of derogatory things about Trump in a Bob Woodward book - and the extraordinary action he took to let his Chinese counterpart know in a secret phone call that all was well with the stability of the United States when Trump refused to accept the election victory of Joe Biden in 2020. He said if Trump threatened to use nuclear weapons, he would inform his counterpart in Beijing in order to avoid a nuclear war between the US and China. Trump said that was treason. Deprived of the option to go for Milley now after Biden's pardon intervention, Trump or a member of Trump's team ordered the Pentagon to take down the official portrait of General Milley from the long wall in the E-ring which plays host to pictures of all joint chiefs chairmen. There is now an empty space in the line-up. Poor Milley, he always did what he thought was the right thing for the country and for the constitution but Trump has effectively wiped him off the record books. It's only symbolic but the removal of his portrait must have sent shivers down the retired general's back. Thanks to Biden, he is safe from prosecution. But what a position to be in. His security clearance has also been removed by Trump. Past chairmen of the joint chiefs normally retain their security clearance, so that they can be briefed on security matters if and when required. Way back in other centuries, it might have been "off with his head". Today, under Trump, it's "off with the portrait".