Not trying to take sides here, but doesn't this thing kind of happen with some regularity? Haven't military leaders / SECDEF called their Russian (and nowadays Chinese) counterparts in the past before some sort of missile launch to say "hey. this isn't the balloon going up?" I read in a book about 9/11 the Russians called to say "hey, this wasn't us, and we promise we won't mess with you for a little bit."
With the current AUMF that (somehow) still remains in force, my understanding is the President wouldn't have the authority to strike China. Taking time to remind them of that in order to ease tensions doesn't seem all that crazy to me. He called his peer, not someone above or below him. He didn't leak any information.
And for all we know, Trump had no plans to strike China. So far from what's been released from the book was not Milley or other advisers convincing President Trump not to, just reminding the Chinese "hey, we don't have plans to do this." Milley told him democracy sometimes looks messy but there were no plans that Trump would strike in order to declare some emergency to stay in power (which, even if he did, there are no provisions in our Constitution that would allow it).
With the current AUMF that (somehow) still remains in force, my understanding is the President wouldn't have the authority to strike China. Taking time to remind them of that in order to ease tensions doesn't seem all that crazy to me. He called his peer, not someone above or below him. He didn't leak any information.
And for all we know, Trump had no plans to strike China. So far from what's been released from the book was not Milley or other advisers convincing President Trump not to, just reminding the Chinese "hey, we don't have plans to do this." Milley told him democracy sometimes looks messy but there were no plans that Trump would strike in order to declare some emergency to stay in power (which, even if he did, there are no provisions in our Constitution that would allow it).