John Kelly says Trump told him more than once that Hitler 'did some good things'

• John Kelly says Trump told him that Hitler "did immoderate bully things," nan New York Times reported.
• Kelly said moreover aft he told Trump not to opportunity that, nan erstwhile president brought it up again.
• The stakes of speaking retired against Trump are higher than ever pinch nan predetermination looming.

With Election Day little than 2 weeks away, erstwhile President Donald Trump's ex-chief of unit John Kelly voiced his concerns astir nan Republican statesmanlike nominee successful a bid of interviews pinch The New York Times.

"He commented much than erstwhile that, 'You know, Hitler did immoderate bully things, too,'" Kelly told nan Times. Kelly, a erstwhile Marine general, served successful Trump's White House from 2017 to 2019.

Kelly said he responded by telling Trump, "First of all, you should ne'er opportunity that."

The interactions, Kelly said, showed that Trump had small knowing of history.

"But if you knew what Hitler was each astir from nan opening to nan end, everything he did was successful support of his racist, fascist life, you know, the, you know, philosophy, truthful that thing he did, you could argue, was bully — it was surely not done for nan correct reason," Kelly told nan Times.

Kelly's conversations astir Hitler pinch Trump had been reported by different outlets, but this is nan first clip Kelly has confirmed them.

In Michael Bender's 2021 book "Frankly We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost," Bender wrote that Trump told Kelly that Hitler "did a batch of bully things," which "stunned" Kelly astatine nan time, according to Bender.

In a connection shared pinch Business Insider, nan Trump campaign's communications director, Steven Cheung, disputed Kelly's story.

"John Kelly has wholly beclowned himself pinch these debunked stories he has fabricated because he grounded to service his President good while moving arsenic Chief of Staff and presently suffers from a debilitating lawsuit of Trump Derangement Syndrome," Cheung said successful nan statement.

Trump has antecedently defended himself against accusations that his rhetoric is akin to Hitler's. In 2023, aft Trump said immigrants are "poisoning nan blood" of this country, critics accused nan erstwhile president of adopting nan aforesaid benignant of racist, dehumanizing connection that Hitler had utilized against Jewish people.

In a radio question and reply pinch Hugh Hewitt astatine nan time, Trump said, "I cognize thing astir Hitler. I'm not a student of Hitler," adding that he had ne'er publication Hitler's manifesto, Mein Kampf.

This isn't nan first clip Kelly has sounded nan siren astir Trump.

Kelly told CNN past twelvemonth that he had witnessed firsthand Trump calling veterans "suckers" who had "nothing successful it for them" — alleged statements that were first elaborate by The Atlantic successful 2020.

In August, Kelly besides blasted Trump for suggesting that nan Presidential Medal of Freedom, nan nation's highest civilian award, is amended than nan Congressional Medal of Freedom, which is fixed to grant work members' acts of valor and sacrifice to nan country.

In nan Times question and reply this week, Kelly besides said that Trump fits nan meaning of a fascist, and warned that nan Republican would norm for illustration a dictator if re-elected.