Trump's Ex-Chief Of Staff Says Donald Prefers 'Dictator' Approach

On Tuesday, The Atlantic published an article by its editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg alleging that while serving as president, Donald Trump once said: "I need the kind of generals that Hitler had. People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders."

Goldberg attributed this account to "two people who heard him say this" and also cited John Kelly, Trump's White House chief-of-staff from 2017 to 2019, who said the then president expressed admiration for the loyalty of "Hitler's generals." Trump spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer branded the account "absolutely false" adding: "President Trump never said this."

In an interview with The New York Times published on Tuesday, Kelly said: "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 also alleged he'd said "you know, Hitler did some good things too."

"He commented more than once that, 'You know, Hitler did some good things, too,'" Kelly told The New York Times.
The claims were rejected by Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung who in a statement to The New York Times said Kelly was spreading "debunked stories." Newsweek has contacted representatives of Donald Trump 2024 presidential election campaign for comment via email on Wednesday outside of regular office hours.

The accusations come as polling analysis suggests the 2024 presidential election remains a nail-biter, with website FiveThirtyEight giving Democratic candidate Kamala Harris a 1.7-point lead over Trump in its latest polling average published on Tuesday. However, the website says that overall Trump has a 52 percent chance of victory in November, against Harris at 48 percent.

Senior Democrats have suggested a second Trump term could pose a threat to American democracy with Harris recently labeling the Republican nominee "unstable" and "dangerous," while the voice-over in one of her recent ads said that "if he wins, he'll ignore all checks that rein in a president's power." Trump has denied this claim and hit back saying the threat to U.S. democracy comes from another Democratic administration.

By James Bickerton
US News Reporter
Updated Oct 23, 2024 at 7:05 AM EDT