Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, has warned us time and time again that Donald Trump ‘meets the definition of a fascist and would govern like a dictator.’
Kelly writes that Trump “never accepted the fact that he wasn’t the most powerful man in the world — and by power, I mean an ability to do anything he wanted, anytime he wanted.”
In his book, Trump reportedly asked Kelly, “Why can’t you be like the German generals?” and claimed Hitler’s generals “were totally loyal to him.”
Here’s Kelly’s confirmation, according to Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg:
This week, I asked Kelly about their exchange. He told me that when Trump raised the subject of “German generals,” Kelly responded by asking, “Do you mean Bismarck’s generals?” He went on: “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. Kelly told me Trump was not acquainted with Rommel.
Kamala Harris responded to the reports, warning that the former president is “increasingly unhinged and unstable,” and in a second Trump term “people like John Kelly will no longer be there to rein him in.”