Chairman of the Joint Chiefs stresses military is not political after reports he feared a coup attempt from former President Donald Trump

WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — America’s top military officer did not deny during a news briefing Wednesday that he feared Former President Donald Trump would attempt a coup to stay in office if he lost the election.

General Mark Milley instead stressed that the military is not political and doesn’t weigh in on elections.

According to a new book by two Washington Post reporters, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs made informal plans for ways to prevent the then-president from taking action that would be illegal or detrimental to U.S. democracy after the election results.

The authors of “I Alone Can Fix It” wrote that Milley told officials, “They may try, but they’re not going to succeed.”

He also reportedly “believed Trump was stoking unrest, possibly in hopes of an excuse to invoke the insurrection act” and viewed the former president as “the classic authoritarian leader with nothing to lose.”

Both Milley and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin refused to comment on reporting in the book during a Pentagon briefing.

“The United States military is an apolitical institution. We were then and we are now…” Milley said. “We don’t arbitrate elections…that’s not the job of the military.”

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin added about Milley, “he doesn’t have a political bone in his body. I clearly have tremendous faith and confidence in the chairman. What I want to make sure we do is maintain our focus on the threats ahead.”

Trump has put out a statement attacking Milley calling the idea of a coup ridiculous.

“I never threatened, or spoke about, to anyone, a coup of our government,” Trump said adding that if he did want to stage a coup, he would not want to do it with Milley.