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General Mark A. Milley was confirmed for the top position by the U.S Senate in the month of July after Trump nominated the Princeton University alum who also holds a master’s degree in international relations from Columbia University in December 2018. On Monday, Milley informed Trump during his speech that he would always provide informed, candid, and impartial military advice. The Independent Senator Angus King of Maine asked the general during his confirmation whether he would be intimidated by the president. Milley said, “Absolutely not, by no one, ever. I’ll give my best military advice. It’ll be candid. It’ll be honest. It’ll be rigorous and it’ll be thorough”. He added, “We are not going to be intimidated into making stupid decisions. We will give our best military advice regardless of the consequences to ourselves”.

The U.S Senator Tom Cotton (Republican from Arkansas and a former Army captain) questioned Milley in the same hearing regarding the policy of military on following orders. Milley said, “When the decision-maker makes a decision, it’s our job to execute, even if he considers the order “ill-advised”. Cotton said the U.S Defense Department policy directs enlisted personnel to follow all orders while officers can disobey those they consider illegal but Milley pushed back on the distinction between rank categories. Milley informed Cotton and said, “Frankly, I would expect any soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, regardless of rank not to obey an illegal, immoral, or unethical order, even at the risk of their own life”.
Milley also informed Cotton, “It’s the Nuremberg standard. You can’t hide behind I was ordered to do it”. Milley served in the 82nd Airborne Division and the 10th Mountain Division and he is a veteran of multiple deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. Snapshots of his career in news articles see him as an Army major in Haiti in 1994 when President Bill Clinton launched an invasion force of 25,000 military personnel to remove the military coup installed after Lieutenant General Raoul Cedras overthrew the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Another vignette from 1997 shows Milley stationed in Korea at the rank of lieutenant colonel.