With the November elections right around the corner, a spate of polarizing statements about this year’s presidential candidates is making headlines. John Kelly, the retired Marine general and Donald Trump’s former White House chief of staff, topped the list with his shocking revelations about former president Donald Trump. The retired Marine described another Trump term to fit the “general definition of fascism.”.
Kelly warned Trump supporters of a dystopian future by drawing parallels between the former president and Hilter, stating he wanted the “kind of generals Hitler had” in his dictatorial regime. He told The Atlantic that Trump wished for the same “deference Adolf Hitler’s Nazi generals showed the German dictator during World War II.”
“‘Do you mean Bismarck’s generals?’” Kelly told The Atlantic when recounting the exchange with Trump. He added, “I mean, I knew he didn’t know who Bismarck was or about the Franco-Prussian War. I said, ‘Do you mean the Kaiser’s generals? Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.’ I explained to him that Rommel had to commit suicide after taking part in a plot against Hitler.”
When these shocking revelations saw the light of day, Trump’s campaign adviser Alex Pfeiffer was quick to discredit this narrative as “absolutely false.” The Democratic faction was quick to capitalize on Kelly’s comments when Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, addressed a rally in Wisconsin and remarked that Trump’s comments on Hitler’s generals made him “sick as hell.”
He continued, warning the crowd: “Folks, the guardrails are gone. Trump is descending 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.”
Trump’s dictatorial streak was amplified by the Vice President in a Fox News interview last week. Harris spoke curtly, emphasizing that “this is a democracy. And in a democracy, the president of the United States of America should be willing to be able to handle criticism without saying he would lock people up for doing it.”
In a recorded interview with The Times, Kelly was probed on Trump’s malicious outlook on running the US. When asked if Trump met the definition of a fascist, Kelly responded: “Certainly the former president is in the far-right area; he’s certainly an authoritarian; he admires people who are dictators—he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”
In an elaborate expose, The Atlantic shed light on Trump’s views of the American military. Additionally, the newspaper also recounted the former president’s thoughts on the loyalty of Nazi generals and reported that Trump was furious upon learning the cost of the funeral for a fallen servicemember, which he had offered to cover.
According to The Atlantic, Trump instructed his then-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to pay the funeral bill, claiming that “these people are trying to rip me off.”
