WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff is warning that the Republican presidential nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that Trump suggested during his time in office that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “did some good things.”
The comments from John Kelly, the retired Navy general who worked for Trump in the White House from 2017 to 2019, came in interviews with both The New York Times and The Atlantic. They build on a growing series of warnings from former top Trump officials as the election enters its final weeks.
Kelly has long been critical of Trump and previously accused him of calling veterans who died in combat “suckers” and “losers.” Yet his new warnings came just two weeks before Election Day, as Trump seeks a second term, promising to dramatically expand his use of the military at home and suggesting he would use force to go after Americans whom he considers ‘enemies from within’.
“He remarked more than once, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things too,’” Kelly recalled to The Times. Kelly said he would typically undermine the conversation by saying “nothing (Hitler) did, you could say, was right,” but that Trump would occasionally bring up the subject again.
In his interview with The Atlantic, Kelly recalled that when Trump floated the idea of needing “German generals,” Kelly would ask if he meant “Bismarck’s generals,” referring to Otto von Bismarck, the former chancellor of the German Empire who oversaw the unification. of Germany. “You certainly don’t mean Hitler’s generals,” Kelly recalled when she asked Trump. To which the former president replied: “Yes, yes, Hitler’s generals.”
Trump’s campaign denied these stories on Tuesday, with Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, claiming that Kelly “has honored himself with these debunked stories that he has made up.”
Polls show that the race is tight in a series of swing states, with both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris crossing the country and casting their last votes among the group of undecided voters.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate who served for 24 years in various units and jobs in the National Guard, quickly used the interviews Tuesday night to attack Trump.
“Folks, the guardrails are gone,” Walz said in Wisconsin. “Trump is falling into this madness – a former president of the United States and the candidate for president of the United States says he wants generals like Adolf Hitler had.”
Kelly also said in his interview with The Times that Trump met the definition of a fascist. After reading aloud the definition, including that fascism was “a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader,” Kelly concluded that Trump “certainly falls within the general definition of fascist.”
Kelly added that Trump was often infuriated by any attempt to limit his power, and that he would “love” to be a dictator.
“He certainly prefers the dictatorial approach of government,” Kelly told The Times. He later added: “I think he would love to be like that if he was in business: he could tell people to do things and they would do it, without worrying too much about what was legal and what wasn’t.”
Kelly is not the first former top Trump administration official to label the former president as a threat. 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 for this country.” And retired Gen. Jim Mattis, who served under Trump as U.S. Secretary of Defense, later reportedly told Woodward that he agreed with Milley’s assessment.
