Former president Donald Trump is an “authoritarian” and apparent “fascist” who admires Adolf Hitler and craves unchecked power, according to his former chief of staff.
John Kelly, the retired Marine general and homeland security secretary who served 18 months in the Trump White House in 2017 and 2018, told The New York Times that Trump “prefers the dictator approach to government” in comments published Tuesday. His assessment adds to a growing chorus of warnings from former generals and high-ranking military officials who served under Trump and have recently described the former president as “a fascist to the core” and a “threat” to the country.
Kelly himself had previously warned that Trump admires dictators—including Hitler, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un—and that he frequently expressed frustration at the limits the Constitution placed on his own power.
“My theory on why he likes the dictators so much is that’s who he is,” Kelly told CNN’s Jim Sciutto earlier this year.
But Kelly’s remarks to the Times went even further. Asked if he believed that Trump is a fascist, Kelly first read off a 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,” he said. “So certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America.”
Kelly also said that Trump is “certainly an authoritarian” who “prefers the dictator approach to government.” Trump has “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,” Kelly added.
In a separate new interview with The Atlantic, the retired general confirmed reports that Trump had expressed envy for Hitler’s generals while in the White House. Kelly had to explain to the then president that it might not be appropriate to covet the military trappings of a genocidal dictator. “‘Do you mean the kaiser’s generals? Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals?’” Kelly said he asked Trump. “And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.’”
Trump, for his part, denies that any of this ever occurred, and a spokesperson for the campaign told the Times that Kelly had “beclowned” himself. But it may prove more difficult to rebuff criticism from so many former military and defense officials. Earlier this month, a new book by journalist Bob Woodward reported that retired General Mark Milley likewise considered Trump “a fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.” Jim Mattis, Trump’s former defense secretary, has also called the former president “dangerous” and “unfit,” an assessment he reportedly doubled down on in recent weeks.
On September 22, a bipartisan group of more than 700 former military, diplomatic and national security officials endorsed Kamala Harris, describing the election as a clear choice between “democracy and authoritarianism.” In his interviews with the Times, Kelly declined to endorse a candidate himself—but it is, he said, “a very dangerous thing to have the wrong person elected to high office.”
