LAS VEGAS — Former President Donald Trump denied Thursday that he ever said positive things about Hitler while in office, including that he “needed the kind of generals Hitler had.”
“I never said that,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question about an article this week in The Atlantic.
“I would never say that,” he added, directly denying the magazine’s reporting.
Trump then criticized the author of the article and the publication, calling it “a failing magazine.”
When reached for comment, The Atlantic spokesperson Anna Bross said in a statement: “We stand by our reporting, as we do with our previous coverage of former President Trump and his various statements.”
The magazine reported Tuesday that Trump said in a private conversation during his time in office that he needed generals like Adolf Hitler’s. “People who were completely loyal to him, who were following orders,” he said, The Atlantic reported, citing two people who said they heard him make the comment.
During Hitler’s rule over Nazi Germany, approximately 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. According to the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, approximately 45 million civilians died worldwide during World War II, although estimates vary.
The Atlantic also reported that when Trump brought up “German generals” to John Kelly, his chief of staff at the time, Kelly asked if he meant “Bismarck’s generals,” referring to the first German chancellor.
‘I mean, I knew he didn’t know who Bismarck was, or about the Franco-Prussian War. I said, ‘Do you mean the Emperor’s generals? of Hitler generals? And he said, ‘Yes, yes, Hitler’s generals,'” according to The Atlantic.
Kelly also told The New York Times in a series of recent interviews published online this week that Trump told him that “Hitler did some good things.”
Trump denied on Thursday that he had made that comment.
“I never said it,” he told reporters.
Trump’s campaign has criticized Kelly’s comments. Steven Cheung, a campaign spokesman, said Kelly was “completely denying himself” by telling “debunked stories.”
Trump spokesman Alex Pfeiffer told The Atlantic in an email that Hitler’s comments were “absolutely false,” the publication said.
The former president has previously shamed Kelly, saying that during his tenure as chief of staff, he “came in with a bang and left with a whimper.” In August, Trump called Kelly “one of the dumbest people I’ve ever met.”
The Harris campaign released an ad Thursday night highlighting Kelly’s comments about his former boss, a day after the vice president cited Trump’s reported comments, arguing that he is “increasingly unhinged.”
Jillian Frankel reported from Las Vegas, Alex Tabet from Phoenix and Megan Lebowitz from Washington.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
