Washington has been roiled by reports that in the waning days of the Trump presidency, Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made two calls to Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army to assure him that the United States would not go to war with or attack China. The reports were based on excerpts from the forthcoming book Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The most explosive claim in the excerpts, and the one with the most staying power as a scandal in itself, is that Milley told Li he would warn him if the U.S. were planning an attack on China.

These reports also say Milley inserted himself into the operational chain of command by demanding that he be consulted by commanders regarding any Trump order to use force. His purported conversation with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in which the latter supposedly told Milley the president should have been arrested, has also raised eyebrows.