John Kelly, the retired Marine general who was Donald Trump\u2019s White House chief of staff, entered the 2024 fray in stunning fashion in a series of interviews published Tuesday, saying the former president fits \u201cinto the general definition of fascist\u201d and that he spoke of the loyalty of Hitler\u2019s Nazi generals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kelly\u2019s comments, two weeks from Election Day, are the latest in a line of warnings from former Trump White House aides about how he views the presidency and would exercise power if returned to office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to the fascist comments, Kelly \u2014 who was Trump\u2019s chief of staff from 2017 to 2019 \u2014 told The New York Times<\/u><\/a> that the former president \u201ccertainly prefers the dictator approach to government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also confirmed to The Atlantic<\/u><\/a> that Trump had said he wished his military personnel showed him the same deference Adolf Hitler\u2019s Nazi generals showed the German dictator during World War II, and recounted the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2018Do you mean Bismarck\u2019s generals?\u2019\u201d Kelly told The Atlantic he\u2019d asked Trump. He added, \u201cI mean, I knew he didn\u2019t know who Bismarck was, or about the Franco-Prussian War. I said, \u2018Do you mean the kaiser\u2019s generals? Surely you can\u2019t mean Hitler\u2019s generals?\u2019 And he said, \u2018Yeah, yeah, Hitler\u2019s generals.\u2019 I explained to him that Rommel had to commit suicide after taking part in a plot against Hitler.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s campaign denied the exchange. \u201cThis is absolutely false. President Trump never said this,\u201d campaign adviser Alex Pfeiffer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Democrats quickly seized on the comments. Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said Tuesday night at a rally in Wisconsin that the reported comments about Hitler\u2019s generals \u201cmakes me sick as hell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFolks, the guardrails are gone. Trump is descending into this madness \u2014 a former president of the United States and the candidate for president of the United States says he wants generals like Adolf Hitler had,\u201d said Walz, who served in the Army National Guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kelly\u2019s comments come in the closing days of Trump\u2019s race against Harris, as he seeks to return to the Oval Office four years after losing an election he has falsely maintained was riddled with fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump has mused in recent speeches and interviews about turning the US military on political rivals he has referred to as the \u201cenemy within\u201d<\/u><\/a> \u2014 comments that Harris has pointed to as evidence that the former president is \u201cunhinged\u201d and poses a danger to democratic values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a democracy,\u201d she told Fox News last week. \u201cAnd in a democracy, the president of the United States \u2013 in the United States of America \u2013 should be willing to be able to handle criticism without saying he would lock people up for doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Times reported Kelly criticized Trump\u2019s \u201cenemy within\u201d comments, saying that \u201ceven to say it for political purposes to get elected \u2014 I think it\u2019s a very, very bad thing, let alone actually doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The newspaper reported that in a recorded interview, Kelly was asked whether the former president met the definition of a fascist and responded by reading aloud a definition he\u2019d found online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell, looking at the definition of fascism: It\u2019s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cSo certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kelly continued: \u201cCertainly the former president is in the far-right area, he\u2019s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators \u2014 he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kelly told the Times that Trump \u201cnever accepted the fact that he wasn\u2019t the most powerful man in the world \u2014 and by power, I mean an ability to do anything he wanted, anytime he wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think he\u2019d love to be just like he was in business \u2014 he could tell people to do things and they would do it, and not really bother too much about whether what the legalities were and whatnot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also said Trump didn\u2019t understand the Constitution or the values on which the nation was built, and that it \u201cwas a new concept for him\u201d that top government officials\u2019 loyalty was to the Constitution, not the president personally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement that Kelly had \u201ctotally beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated because he failed to serve his President well while working as Chief of Staff and currently suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kelly also told The Times that Trump had praised Hitler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe commented more than once that, \u2018You know, Hitler did some good things, too,\u2019\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kelly\u2019s comments to the newspaper were published the same day The Atlantic reported that Trump had praised Hitler\u2019s generals for their loyalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI need the kind of generals that Hitler had,\u201d Trump said during a private conversation at the White House when he was president, The Atlantic reported. \u201cPeople who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, told CNN\u2019s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday night that Trump\u2019s admiration of Hitler was perhaps the \u201cmost shocking\u201d thing Kelly heard in the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRemember, Donald Trump, throughout his presidency, was frustrated by the generals \u2014 or \u2018my generals,\u2019 as he called them \u2026 because they wouldn\u2019t sort of mindlessly listen to him or follow his orders,\u201d Goldberg said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n American military officers, such as generals, swear an oath to the Constitution and not the commander in chief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump has reportedly made similar comments about Hitler and his generals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u2018Enemy within\u2019<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Praising Hitler\u2019s generals<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n