Staff Reports
General Mark Milley is in the headlines once again, though this time it’s not for his accolades during military service but for a series of unfortunate events that could rival a poorly scripted drama. As President Donald Trump took office, Milley’s portrait mysteriously vanished from the Pentagon, igniting rumors that the general’s influence might be on borrowed time. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has since taken swift action, stripping Milley of his security detail and security clearance like a parent confiscating a teenager’s phone for bad behavior. Rumor has it they’re even considering a downgrade from a 4-star to a mere 3-star for his retirement—an indignity that sends shivers through any self-respecting general.
This has stirred the pot amongst the usual suspects, with Susan Glasser, a staff writer at the New Yorker, fretting over the symbolic removal of Milley’s likeness. She took to social media to lament this disheartening event, drawing parallels between the portrait-pulling and certain totalitarian regimes infamous for rewriting history. Perhaps someone should remind her that this is America, not a history class charged with keeping political correctness in check.
VP Vance and Community Notes Have an Embarrassing Reminder for the New Yorker's Susan Glasser https://t.co/qyjR9sHQIV
— Deenie (@deenie7940) January 30, 2025
Interestingly enough, Glasser’s cries for help fell on deaf ears, as Vice President JD Vance jumped into the fray. He threw a well-timed jab by pointing out the hypocrisy of caring about Milley’s portrait being taken down when statues of American heroes—Washington, Jefferson, and even Lincoln—have faced vandalism or removal in the name of “wokeness.” Imagine a world where Mark Milley’s portrait is the last bastion of honor, while monuments to founding fathers and presidents are toppled like cheap lawn decorations.
It seems that the modern American left has engaged in a bizarre form of cultural scavenging that thrives on the desecration of history. After the death of George Floyd, the statue mob’s fever pitch led to great American heroes being erased from the public square as if they were bad grades on a report card. Even the Museum of Natural History jumped on the bandwagon by removing a statue of Theodore Roosevelt—an iconic native New Yorker—but apparently, that was just the tip of the iceberg.
As if that weren’t enough, Community Notes took it upon themselves to remind Glasser of her own past glories in which she called for the removal of Confederate statues and the renaming of military bases. It appears that her current lamentations over Milley’s portrait being yanked might not align well with her previous mantra of “let’s erase history we don’t like.” Some might call it poetic justice; others might see it as sheer hypocrisy. Nevertheless, it raises a crucial question: is the left ready to embrace a little consistency in their arguments, or is that asking too much? While they mourn the loss of a general’s portrait, the American ethos continues to be chipped away piece by piece, all in the name of progress.
