"Milley continued to be hounded by the events of June 1. His critics were everywhere: on cable news channels, on social media, on op-ed pages. Milley understood the ridicule. He had been photographed in battle fatigues alongside a president who was intent on politicizing the military. It was a fiasco. He called many of his predecessors to seek advice. "Should I resign?" he asked Colin Powell, who had been the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993 under President George H.W. Bush. "Fuck no!" Powell said. "I told you never to take the job. You should never have taken the job. Trump's a fucking maniac." Milley received similar, although less colorful, advice from a dozen former secretaries of defense and former chairmen. Milley decided to apologize publicly but did not give Trump advance warning... Several days later, Trump stopped Milley after a routine meeting in the Oval Office. "Hey, aren't you proud of walking with your president?" Trump asked. "To the church?" Milley asked. Yes, Trump said. "Why did you apologize?" "Mr. President, it's got nothing to do with you actually." Trump looked skeptical. "It had to do with me," Milley said. "It had to do with this uniform. Had to do with the traditions of the United States military and that we are an apolitical organization. "You're a politician," Milley said. "You're a political actor. For you to do it, that's your call. But I cannot be part of political events, Mr. President. It's one of our long-standing traditions." "Why did you apologize?" the president asked again. "That's a sign of weakness." "Mr. President," he said, looking directly at Trump, "not where I come from." He was a Boston-area native. "Where I was born and how I was raised is when you make a mistake, you admit it." Trump tilted his head to the side like the Victrola Dog, the small dog famously pictured staring at a windup phonograph and long used by RCA Records as a mascot. "Hmm," he said. "Okay.""