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Milley’s apology keeps the Lafayette Square fiasco on the record
Mark Milley spent June 11 apologizing for his role in Trump’s Lafayette Square photo op, a fresh sign that the episode had become a civil-military embarrassment, not just a one-night optics problem. Milley said he should not have been there, effectively conceding that the military was dragged into a political stunt. That matters because the White House had tried to frame the walk to St. John’s Church as a normal review of security, while protesters and reporters had described a forceful clearing of peaceful demonstrators. The apology made clear that the controversy was not fading; it was hardening into a judgment about how the president used force and uniformed leaders for theater.