Was President Trump aware of Mark Milley's secret calls to China in 2020?

1. What the reporting says happened

Reporting based largely on the Woodward/Costa book and subsequent interviews describes two Milley phone calls to Gen. Li Zuocheng — Oct. 30, 2020 (four days before the election) and Jan. 8, 2021 (after the Capitol attack) — in which Milley reassured the Chinese military that the United States was not going to launch an attack and offered to give a warning if it were to happen ^{[1] [6] [7]}.

2. Milley’s account and defense

Gen. Milley publicly defended the calls as “perfectly within the duties and responsibilities” of his job and said he was responding to “concerning” or a “significant degree of” intelligence that China feared a U.S. attack; he also told Congress the calls were coordinated with defense secretaries and other national security officials ^{[2] [3] [4]}.

3. Did Milley tell President Trump? Conflicting claims

Major outlets report different emphases: several pieces note President Trump has said Milley “never told me about calls being made to China” and called the story “fabricated,” while other reporting and Milley’s testimony stress that the calls “were not secret to U.S. government officials” and that Milley acted at the direction of or in coordination with then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper and others ^{[1] [4] [5] [8]}. Available sources do not provide a verbatim, contemporaneous record proving whether Milley told Trump directly before or after the calls; they report Trump’s denial and Milley’s claim of coordination with senior officials ^{[1] [4]}.

4. Who else in the Trump administration knew, according to reporting

Multiple outlets cite that Milley said the Oct. 30 call was done at the direction of then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper and involved other U.S. officials on the call; some later reporting suggested “key Trump officials were notified” about the calls, though accounts differ on who exactly knew and when ^{[4] [9] [3]}. The emphasis across sources is that Milley and his team characterize the calls as coordinated with parts of the U.S. national security apparatus ^{[3] [2]}.

5. Political reactions and the stakes

The calls triggered sharp partisan debate: Republicans in Congress accused Milley of overstepping his authority and Democrats (and the Biden administration, per reporting) defended Milley’s actions as stabilizing; Trump denounced Milley as treasonous in some statements while also denying he was ever informed ^{[2] [4] [1]}. Reporters note the calls touched on sensitive issues like nuclear command and strategic stability, which helps explain the intensity of the political fallout ^{[6] [7]}.

6. Limitations and what reporting does not establish

Available sources do not include declassified call logs or a contemporaneous statement from the president confirming notification; they rely on Milley’s testimony, book excerpts, and reporting based on interviews and documents ^{[3] [1]}. Therefore, while multiple outlets report Milley’s claim that the calls were coordinated with senior defense officials, the sources do not definitively show whether President Trump personally knew about the calls before or after they happened ^{[4] [1]}.

7. How different outlets framed motives and authority

News organizations emphasize competing narratives: Woodward/Costa’s reporting and outlets like Reuters/BBC/Associated Press stress Milley’s fear of a “rogue” or unstable situation and his intent to prevent war ^{[1] [7] [6]}; other coverage foregrounds constitutional questions about military subordinates communicating independently with foreign militaries and Trump-era denials ^{[4] [2]}. The balance of coverage shows both national-security rationale and concerns about civilian control of the military ^{[6] [4]}.

Conclusion — what can be said with confidence

Reporting consistently shows Milley made the two calls and that he and multiple outlets describe those calls as coordinated with senior Defense Department officials and other agencies; however, the sources provided do not conclusively document whether President Trump himself was informed about the calls, and both Milley’s defenders and Trump give conflicting public accounts ^{[3] [4] [1]}.