Former President Donald Trump accused Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley of committing “treason” if he did covertly contacted China to avoid a confrontation.

According to a new book, titled “Peril” written by reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Milley allegedly communicated with a top Chinese general to prevent avoidable confrontation. He allegedly got in touch with his Chinese counterpart due to his anxiousness about Trump’s actions after losing the 2020 election.

“If it is actually true, which is hard to believe that he would have called China and done these things and was willing to advise them of an attack or in advance of an attack, that’s treason,” Trump said when asked about the book during an interview.

Before the interview, Trump was reportedly asking his political allies to go on TV and demand that Milley be “arrested” for “treason” as portions from the book describing his acts were made public. Trump denied the reports, stating that people were the ones approaching him about Milley committing treason.

The excerpts from the book are the latest evidence that the senior US military officer went above and beyond in his efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss and to stir up bogus accusations of election fraud that prompted supporters to invade the Capitol on January 6.

Milley felt Trump had gone into severe mental deterioration following the Capitol incident, according to the authors of the book. They said one of his measures was to call a meeting of top Pentagon officials to attempt to prevent Trump from ordering a nuclear strike.

Although US presidents can launch nuclear weapons at any time, experts have argued that there are methods to challenge an order that the military deems hazardous or incorrect. Experts have been arguing over the legality of the activities currently being blamed on Milley.