On top of the many members of the Trump administration who have already spoken out against the former president’s candidacy, John Kelly, his one-time chief of staff, warned in an expansive interview Tuesday that Trump is a fascist and would rule like a dictator.
Kelly, a former Marine general, told The New York Times that Trump didn‘t understand the rule of law, and that he praised Hitler multiple times. Audio tape of Kelly’s comments was aired later on CNN.
“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," Kelly told The Times. “He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.”
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And when asked whether Trump had any empathy, Kelly replied simply, “No.”
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung called Kelly’s accounts “debunked stories,” and said he had “beclowned” himself.
Kelly’s interview comes mere hours after The Atlantic reported that Trump, while president, expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler’s Nazi generals. “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” he said in the White House, according to two people who heard him. “People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.”
The outlet also quoted Trump as bashing veterans by telling a Cabinet official that “only suckers went to Vietnam.”
Kelly‘s blistering criticism of Trump echoes that of former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley. “A total fascist,” Milley said of Trump, as told to Bob Woodward for his book, War.
