'Milley made it up': Trump says top general invented story of contacting Chinese military leader

Former President Donald Trump blasted new reporting that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, circumvented his authority while president, saying Milley invented the story.

According to the New York Times, journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa allege in their upcoming book "Peril" that Milley made secret phone calls to China because he was afraid Trump might launch a nuclear strike. 

Trump refuted these claims in a statement Monday night, saying he believed Milley made the story up and leaked it to Woodward and Costa.

"The good news is that the story is Fake News concocted by a weak and ineffective general together with two authors who I refused to give an interview to because they write fiction, not fact," Trump wrote. He added that actions "should be taken immediately against Milley," and "better generals" should get involved.

“If the story of ‘Dumbass’ General Mark Milley… is true, then I assume he would be tried for TREASON,” said the former President. 

"For the record, I never even thought of attacking China—and China knows that. The people that fabricated the story are sick and demented, and the people who print it are just as bad. In fact, I’m the only President in decades who didn’t get the U.S. into a war—a well known fact that is seldom reported.”