Donald Trump’s response to being described as a Hitler-loving fascist by his former White House chief of staff was a characteristic one: to call the accuser–a decorated retired Marine Corps general–a “lowlife.”
Trump, in a Truth Social post Wednesday night, lashed out at Kelly, whom he claimed was motivated to share damning details about his time with him due to “Trump Derangement Syndrome Hatred.”
“This guy had two qualities, which don’t work well together. He was tough and dumb,” Trump wrote, in yet another instance of him smearing someone he had appointed to a role in his administration. “The problem is his toughness morphed into weakness, because he became JELLO with time!”
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Trump also denied that he called American troops killed in action “suckers” and “losers”—something that Kelly, whose elder son was killed in Afghanistan in 2010, confirmed last year.
“John Kelly is a LOWLIFE, and a bad General, whose advice in the White House I no longer sought, and told him to MOVE ON!“ Trump continued. ”His wife once told me, at Camp David, John admires you tremendously, and when he leaves the Military, he will only speak well of you. I said, Thank you!”
Kelly, in an interview with The New York Times on Tuesday, said Trump praised Adolf Hitler while president, and warned that he would rule like a dictator if elected again.
“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,” said Kelly, who spent 18 months as Trump’s chief of staff. “He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.”
Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump, has likewise described the Republican candidate as “a total fascist.”
