Donald Trump added to his unfortunate history of disparaging military service two weeks ago, with the former president’s comment that the Presidential Medal of Freedom was “way better” than the Medal of Honor — comments that were described as “idiotic” by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, among others.
Former Trump chief of staff and retired Marine General John Kelly, a fierce critic of his former boss, agreed. “There is no way the two awards are comparable,” he told CNN. “Not even close.”
A week later, the GOP presidential candidate fired back. The New York Times reported:
In a podcast interview aired Monday, Donald Trump again attacked the current military leadership as “woke” and derided his former chief of staff and the man he appointed as his top military adviser as “dumb.” “Milley was a stupid person, very stupid,” Trump said of Gen. Mark A. Milley, whom he picked as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He added of his former chief of staff: “Guys like John Kelly are one of the — he’s one of the dumbest people I’ve ever met. A bully, but a weak bully.”
As if it wasn’t enough that Trump described his own former White House chief of staff as “one of the dumbest people” he’s ever met, the Republican called Kelly “scum” and a “terrible, stupid person” in the same interview.
Trump says his former Chief of Staff General John Kelly is a “horrible, stupid person” after telling the media that Trump called our veterans who died in the war “suckers” and “losers.” photo.twitter.com/MhKgIsa0hA
— Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) August 26, 2024
With 10 weeks to go until Election Day, Trump is issuing his fiercest criticism of the retired Marine general he appointed to oversee the Department of Homeland Security and his own White House.
This latest offensive indeed extends one of the strangest ongoing feuds in contemporary American politics. Returning to our previous reporting, it was just two months ago that Trump, unprompted, berated Kelly as “dumb” and a “lost soul.” Months earlier, via his social media platform, the former president had said that his former chief of staff was “by far the dumbest of my military.” He added, referring to Kelly, “He was incapable of doing a good job, it was too much for him, and I couldn’t stand the guy, so I fired him like a ‘dog.’ He had no heart or respect for people, so I beat him hard.”
In a follow-up message, Trump said Kelly was “a Lowlife with a very small brain and a very big mouth.”
There was no great mystery about the motivation for the offensive. After all, Kelly is the one who officially confirmed that Trump really did portray American military personnel as “suckers and losers.”
“What can I add that hasn’t been said?” Kelly told CNN in October 2023. Referring to his former boss, Kelly added: “Someone who thinks that those who defend their country in uniform, or get shot or seriously injured in combat, or are tortured for years as prisoners of war, are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there’s nothing in it for them.’ Someone who didn’t want to be seen around military personnel because ‘it doesn’t look good to me.’ Someone who openly disdained a Gold Star family — all Gold Star families — on TV during the 2016 campaign trail, ranting that our most cherished heroes who gave their lives defending America were ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.
“Someone who is not honest about his position on the protection of the unborn, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women,” Kelly continued. “Someone who has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is about. Someone who casually suggests that a selfless warrior who served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason — expecting someone to take action. Someone who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. Someone who has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.
“There’s nothing more to say,” Kelly concluded. “God help us.”
Kelly has also accused Trump of “poisoning” people’s minds, having “serious character problems” and being “not a real man,” among other things.
Additionally, Kelly told The New York Times in 2022 that during his presidency, Trump had directed his chief of staff to use the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department to target his critics and perceived political enemies.
The Times report further noted: “Mr. Kelly said he made it clear to Mr. Trump that there were serious legal and ethical problems with what he wanted.” The then-president made the demands “regularly” anyway.
I continue to believe that the fact that the Republican candidate has publicly feuded with his own former Homeland Security secretary and chief of staff will likely be a bigger issue in the 2024 campaign.
This post is an update to our related previous reporting.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
