Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt dispatched some advice to generals at the Pentagon: Get on board with President Donald Trump's vision or "resign or retire."
Holt made the remarks to Newsmax on Thursday in the wake of Trump's order to remove an oil painting of retired U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley from the walls of the outer ring of the Pentagon earlier this week. Holt said the bigger issue at the Pentagon dwarfs a painting's removal.
"And the president's going to be making several lawful orders of much more material value than an oil painting going away," Holt said on "Finnerty." "So you gotta pick the hill you wanna die on.
"My advice would be, the president has laid out his vision and his intent for the restoration of this nation. You should either get on board and find out how you can help, or you should evaluate whether this is not in line with your own values, and then simply resign or retire."
Trump also removed Milley from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council. Milley, who served as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2019 to 2023, was among the people issued with a preemptive pardon before President Joe Biden left office on Monday. Milley has often been critical of Trump, including calling him a fascist.
So Trump sent a message to the rest of the generals at the Pentagon, Holt said.
"What better way to send a message that the policies of the last four years, the disloyalty of Gen. Milley, these pushbacks on what President Trump is wanting to do to secure the nation, what better way to do that than to say, 'I'm busting up your tradition of a four-star general's oil painting in the line of succession there on the E Ring,'" Holt said.
"What I'm telling you is we're going to get about the business of mission. We're going to eradicate DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion]. And we're going to start taking our oaths to the Constitution very seriously. And if you push back on that, we're going to find out what civilian control of the military really does mean," he added.
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