Exactly how dire did the top U.S. military officer think things were getting in the dying weeks of the Trump presidency? Well, according to a new book, he thought the president was repeating the steps taken by Adolf Hitler at the birth of Nazi Germany. The book, I Alone Can Fix It, claims that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley told aides in the days ahead of the Capitol riot: “This is a Reichstag moment... The gospel of the Führer.” The authors, Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, wrote that Milley saw Trump as “the classic authoritarian leader with nothing to lose” and feared that he would attempt a coup rather than admit defeat—but told colleagues he was prepared for that eventuality. “They may try, but they’re not going to fucking succeed,” Milley reportedly told deputies. “You can’t do this without the military. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with the guns.”
