Excerpts from Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s forthcoming book “Peril” were just released. The book is apparently the latest effort to smear former President Donald Trump as a deranged lunatic. Alas, for the authors, that’s not what’s grabbed the public’s attention.

Instead, it is the revelation that Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, contacted his counterpart in China, Gen. Li Zuocheng, behind Trump’s back last October.

The authors claim that Milley told the Chinese general, “General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.” Woodward and Costa also claim that Milley called a meeting with high-ranking military officials on Jan. 8, during which he extracted an “oath” that they would not obey any orders from the president unless Milley was involved and approved.

These accounts have created a firestorm. Across the country, Americans are calling Milley’s conduct treasonous.

Is the account true? No one’s denying it. Woodward and Costa stand by their story. The Department of Defense and Milley himself have defended Milley’s conduct and dismissed the uproar as an overreaction. President Joe Biden issued a statement expressing his “great confidence” in Milley.

But it’s not clear that the issue is going to go away that easily. Promising to warn a hostile power of an impending attack sounds like giving “aid and comfort” to the enemy — the definition of treason under Article 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Furthermore, Milley’s behavior threatened the civilian control of the armed forces that’s required by the Constitution. If true, it looks like he was laying the groundwork for a military coup.

Woodward and Costa’s book is not the only one that exposes Milley’s paranoia. Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker released their book “I Alone Can Fix It” earlier this summer. They depict a chairman convinced that Trump was planning a coup. Milley allegedly described Trump’s concerns about the fraud in the November 2020 election as a “Reichstag moment” and “the gospel of the Fuhrer.”

Leonnig and Rucker reveal that Milley’s delusions were fueled by clandestine conversations with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Republican presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and unsuccessful GOP presidential aspirants John McCain and Mitt Romney were all subjected to Democrats’ hostile press gauntlet. But the accusations grew progressively more incredible.

Unfortunately for the Democrats, as their accusations grew more hysterical, they also became less believable. The usual level of deceit wasn’t working. How do we know? The public ignored Democrats and their fearmongers in the press and gave Republicans the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014.

From the time Trump was elected, Democrats in politics and the media ratcheted their manufactured hysteria up to unprecedented levels.

The Milley story shows what happens when those in power either believe their own propaganda or don’t think they’ll ever be called out for it.

It’s no longer just politicians who are threatened by this behavior. Our rights and liberties as citizens are at risk.

Not a single person who stormed the Capitol in January was armed. The FBI has admitted that they can find no proof of a leader or a “plan.” And yet Pelosi and Democrats still call Jan. 6 an “insurrection.” Milley calls Americans exercising their right to peaceably assemble “brownshirts.” The Biden administration is now using these lies to smear half the country.

If they will resort to treason to take out the president, what will they do to you and me? Ask Milley. He said, “We’re the guys with the guns.”