John Kelly, a former Marine general and former Chief of Staff to Donald Trump during his presidency, revealed insights into the former president’s political aims in a series of new interviews. In them, John Kelly framed Trump as a fascist who displayed an affinity for dictators.
John Kelly joins a growing list of former Trump staffers who have plenty to say about the business mogul’s aims in returning to the White House. In a piece published by The Atlantic on Tuesday (October), Trump’s disdain of the military and his desire for the armed forces to display fealty was on display, including Trump allegedly offering to pay for a slain soldier’s funeral but balking at the $60,000 bill and referring to the Army private as a “f*cking Mexican.”
Later in the piece, two people who say they were close to Trump overheard the former president say during a private conversation, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had” but this was later shot down by Trump spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer.
As the profile continues, the remarks Trump made regarding Hitler’s generals resurface and reference The Divider: Trump in the White House, a book by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser. In their book, the pair look deeper into a conversation between Trump and Kelly with the former president asking the former general why he couldn’t be more like the German generals, assuming that they pledged complete loyalty to the Naz leader.
Kelly explained that Hitler’s generals attempted to assassinate him but Trump, apparently not someone who studied war history to the level Kelly had, was undeterred. In a quick follow-up chat with The Atlantic, it was made clear that Trump truly believed in the falsehood that all of Hitler’s generals were in his service.
In the New York Times, the outlet shared details of a recorded interview with Kelly, who was asked if he thought Trump was a fascist.
Kelly answered, “Well, looking at the definition of fascism. It’s 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. So certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America.”
Kelly added, “Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators, he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”
The Kamala HQ X account reshared the audio interview to its 1.4 million followers, garnering replies expressing shock but also replies from the MAGA faithful seeking to portray John Kelly as a jilted former employee.
Q: Do you think Trump is a fascist?
Trump’s Chief of Staff John Kelly: Well, I’m looking at the definition of fascism. It’s a far-right movement with a dictatorial leader and forcible suppression of opposition… So certainly in my experience, he falls into the definition of a… pic.twitter.com/1znyIrkzJ8
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 23, 2024
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Photo: Getty
