My guess is Trump did no due diligence and simply “liked” Milley in an interview. Milley, a career ass kisser, knew how to play to Trump’s ego. The interview was probably 50 minutes of Trump bragging about all he had accomplished while Milley smiled and nodded. The other 10 minutes was Milley telling Trump how wonderful Trump is.
Trump was terrible at hiring people. He used his gut which was almost always wrong. Trump is the guy who hired the sleaze lawyer Michael Cohen as his personal attorney. If a New York billionaire couldn’t vet a decent personal attorney for his business, how could he possibly identify an outstanding general to lead the Joint Chiefs?
“Trump was terrible at hiring people. He used his gut which was almost always wrong.”
But also someone had to recommend Gen. Milley to Trump in the first place. I’ve read here several times that it was Hannity who recommended to Trump he appoint Bolton as his NSA. Hannity isn’t the person one would seek advice from or accept advice from in such matters.
I agree with you that Trump was terrible at hiring and I’ll also say he was not very good at finding and listening to quality, competent advisors.