Former President Donald Trump‘s alleged desire for military generals as “loyal” as those that served under Nazi leader Adolf Hitler has been ripped by a former Trump administration official as “horrifying.”
A report published by The Atlantic on Tuesday claimed that Trump said during a private conversation in the White House that he wanted “the kind of generals that Hitler had,” with the then-president allegedly wanting generals who “were totally loyal to him” and would “follow orders.” A Trump spokesperson denied that Trump made the remarks.
Shortly after the article was published, Olivia Troye, who served as an adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence during the Trump administration and who is now backing Vice President Kamala Harris, weighed in on the alleged remarks in a post to X, formerly Twitter.
“This is who Trump is: a man who trashes our military while dreaming of having the loyalty of Hitler’s generals,” Troye wrote. “It’s horrifying & unacceptable that someone who shows such blatant disrespect for those who serve our country could be president again.”
Former President Donald Trump is pictured during a campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina on October 22, 2024. A report published by The Atlantic on Tuesday claimed that Trump as president longed for “the kind of generals that Hitler had,” prompting former Trump administration official Olivia Troye to call the ex-president’s alleged remarks “horrifying.”
Anna Moneymaker
Newsweek reached out for comment to the Trump campaign via email on Tuesday night for additional comment.
The Atlantic story was not the only article on Tuesday that alleged Trump made comments alluding to an admiration of Hitler during his time in the White House.
John Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, told The New York Times in an article published on Tuesday that Trump had personally told him that he believed “Hitler did some good things.”
Kelly also said that he believed the former president is a “fascist” and a “dictatorial leader” who has “no” empathy. Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung asserted that Kelly’s claims were “debunked” and “fabricated” in comments to Newsweek.
The Atlantic article focused on a claim that Trump did not follow through on an offer to pay for the funeral of Vanessa Guillén, Mexican-American U.S. Army soldier who was murdered at Fort Hood in Texas in 2020.
A lawyer for Guillén’s family told the magazine that a bill was sent to the White House but never paid, although the Army did cover some of the funeral expenses.
Trump allegedly made inflammatory remarks about Guillén’s ethnicity after being told that the funeral cost $60,000 during a White House meeting months after the funeral took place.
According to attendees and notes taken at the meeting, Trump reportedly told then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that “it doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f***ing Mexican” before complaining that the family was “trying to rip [him] off” and instructing his staff to not pay the bill.
Meadows called the report a “hit piece” and said that Trump never made the remarks in a post to X, while a spokesperson for the former president also denied that the remarks were made in comments to The Atlantic.
