Trump wanted 'generals like Hitler's,' former chief of staff says
VP Kamala Harris reacts to alleged comments on Trump
Vice President Harris held a press conference Wednesday morning to react to reporting that former President Trump once praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The comments, reported by The Atlantic, came from a recent interview with retired Gen. John Kelly, who served as White House chief of staff under the Trump administration. Kelly alleged that Trump lauded Hitler’s generals for their loyalty.
Donald Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly has joined a growing list of former Trump administration officials to cast the former president as a threat to the country.
Kelly, a retired Marine general who served as Trump’s chief of staff from 2017 to 2019, warned in two separate interviews – one with The New York Times and one with The Atlantic – that Trump meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office he suggested that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler "did some good things."
"He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,’" Kelly told the Times.
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Kelly said he would usually quash the conversation by saying "nothing (Hitler) did, you could argue, was good," but that Trump would occasionally bring up the topic again.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the beginning of a meeting with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and other government cyber security experts in the Roosevelt Room at the White House January 31, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by
In his interview with The Atlantic, Kelly recalled that when Trump raised the idea of needing "German generals," Kelly would ask if he meant "Bismarck’s generals," referring to Otto von Bismarck, the chancellor who oversaw the unification of Germany. "Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals," Kelly recalled asking Trump. To which the former president responded, "Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals."
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In his interview with the Times, Kelly also said Trump met the definition of a fascist. After reading the definition aloud, including that fascism was "a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader," Kelly concluded Trump "certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure."
"He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government," Kelly told the Times. Adding later, "I think he’d love to be just like he was in business — 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."
Trump’s campaign denied the allegations and accused Kelly of fabricating comments from Trump.
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Kelly has long been critical of Trump and previously accused him of calling veterans killed in combat "suckers" and "losers." His new warnings emerged as Trump seeks a second term vowing to dramatically expand his use of the military at home and suggesting he would use force to go after Americans he considers "enemies from within."
Trump's 'controversial' comments in Detroit
Former President Donald Trump criticized Detroit while delivering remarks to an economic group there, saying the whole country would end up like the city if his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, is elected. FOX 2 Detroit's Robin Murdoch joined LiveNOW from FOX with the latest.
The most recent comments from Kelly build on past warnings from former top Trump officials as the election enters its final two weeks.
Retired Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, who served as Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Bob Woodward in his recent book "War" that Trump was "fascist to the core" and "the most dangerous person to this country." And retired Gen. Jim Mattis, who worked as secretary of defense under Trump, reportedly later told Woodward that he agreed with Milley’s assessment.
About 6 in 10 military veterans said they voted for Trump in 2020, as did just over half of those with a veteran in the household.
"This is a window into who Donald Trump really is, from the people who know him best, from the people who have worked with him side by side in the Oval Office and in the situation room," Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent in the Nov. 5 election, told reporters outside the vice president's residence in Washington.