John Kelly, White House chief of staff during former President Donald Trump’s administration, says the Republican presidential candidate prefers a “dictator approach” to governing, calling Trump a “fascist” who praised Adolf Hitler in Kelly’s presence.
Kelly, a retired U.S. Marines general who was Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, told The New York Times in an interview published on Tuesday that he believes his old boss is a “fascist” and likely aspires to be a dictator.
“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,” Kelly said.
“So certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that [Trump] thinks would work better in terms of running America … He certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure,” he continued. “He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.”
Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, right, is pictured looking at former President Donald Trump during a meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., on October 5, 2017. Kelly in a New York Times interview published on Tuesday said that Trump is a “fascist” who takes a “dictator approach” to leadership.
Andrew Harrer
The former Trump official also said that he had witnessed the former president praising Hitler, the Nazi Germany dictator, on more than one occasion, claiming that Trump had told him “Hitler did some good things.”
Kelly also said that Trump disparaged disabled U.S. soldiers and veterans, while confirming his previous claim that the former president privately called soldiers injured or killed in combat “losers and suckers.”
In a statement emailed to Newsweek, Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung claimed that Kelly’s observations about the former president had been “debunked,” while suggesting that Vice President Kamala Harris had “disrespected” service members instead.
“John Kelly has totally beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated because he failed to serve his President well while working as Chief of Staff and currently suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Cheung said.
“President Trump has always honored the service and sacrifice of all of our military men and women, whereas Kamala Harris has completely disrespected the families of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, including the Abbey Gate 13,” he added.
Kelly also said during his New York Times interview that Trump does not believe that officials in his administration should be loyal to the U.S. Constitution, saying that personal loyalty is “everything” to the former president.
When asked whether he thought that Trump had any “empathy,” Kelly answered “no,” adding that he was inspired to speak out about Trump just weeks before Election Day because he was disturbed by the former president saying that Americans who do not support him are “the enemy within” and should be attacked by the U.S. military.
“I think this issue of using the military on—to go after—American citizens is one of those things I think is a very, very bad thing—even to say it for political purposes to get elected—I think it’s a very, very bad thing, let alone actually doing it,” Kelly said.
Kelly declined to endorse either Trump or Harris in this year’s presidential election but said it was “a very dangerous thing to have the wrong person elected to high office.”
Update 10/22/24, 10 p.m.: This article was updated with further information and context.
