Former President Trump (left) said the late Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (right) ‘did some good things’, according to his former chief of staff John Kelly (Pictures: Getty Images/AP)
Donald Trump has denied comparisons to Adolf Hitler on the campaign trail – but the ex-president allegedly said the late Nazi leader ‘did some good things’.
Trump’s apparent remark was one in a string of shocking commentary he made about dictators he admires for being ‘tough’ guys, claim several of his former senior advisers.
‘He said, “Well, but Hitler did some good things.” I said, “Well, what?” Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly told CNN anchor and chief national security analyst Jim Sciutto.
‘And he said, “Well, (Hitler) rebuilt the economy.” But what did he do with that rebuilt economy? He turned it against his own people and against the world. And I said, “Sir, you can never say anything good about the guy. Nothing.”’
Kelly, who opened up for Sciutto’s book The Return of Great Powers to be released Tuesday, added that it was ‘pretty hard to believe (Trump) missed the Holocaust’.
‘Pretty hard to understand how he missed the 400,000 American GIs that were killed in the European theater,’ Kelly continued, ‘But I think it’s more, again, the tough guy thing.’
Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, told Sciutto that Trump ‘views himself as a big guy’ and ‘likes dealing with other big guys’ like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Bolton noted that Erdogan jailed people without needing to ask for permission and that Trump ‘kind of likes that’.
Kelly opined that Trump is ‘not a tough guy by any means, but in fact quite the opposite’.
Ex-President Donald Trump has denied comparisons to the late Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (Picture: AP)
‘But that’s how he envisions himself,’ Kelly concluded.
Trump furthermore admired Hitler’s power over Nazi officers and wished his own staff remained just as loyal, according to Kelly.
‘He would ask about the loyalty issues and about how, when I pointed out to him the German generals as a group were not loyal to him, and in fact tried to assassinate him a few times, and he didn’t know that,’ recounted Kelly.
Trump was also ‘shocked that he didn’t have dictatorial-type powers’ as president, including that he needed congressional approval on matters like sending American troops abroad.
Ex-President Donald Trump’s (right) former chief of staff John Kelly (left) said he is ‘not a tough guy by any means’ (Picture: Getty Images)
‘My theory on why he likes the dictators so much is that’s who he is,’ said Kelly, mentioning Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
‘And he looked at Putin and Xi and that nutcase in North Korea as people who were like him in terms of being a tough guy.’
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the alleged remarks from Metro.co.uk.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told CNN: ‘John Kelly and John Bolton have completely beclowned themselves and are suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton said that ex-President Donald Trump ‘views himself as a big guy’ (Picture: Reuters)
‘They need to seek professional help because their hatred is consuming their empty lives.’
Trump drew comparisons to Hitler a few months ago when he told his supporters at a New Hampshire campaign rally that immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood’ of the US and called his political opponents ‘vermin’. In December, Trump echoed his comments from his controversial speech but denied knowing about Hitler or being a student of the dictator.
The Republican presidential candidate who is likely to clinch the GOP nomination this week has been lauding authoritarians while seeking a return to the White House.
‘I could go through the whole list of people, including Putin… These people are sharp, tough, and generally vicious,’ Trump told Fox News in July.
‘They’re vicious, and they’re at the top of their game.’
Beside praising Hitler, Trump has also called Xi ‘brilliant’, Kim ‘an OK guy’, and Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán ‘fantastic’.
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