Donald Trump Reacts to John Kelly’s ‘Hitler Generals’ Remarks

Former President Donald Trump has denounced John Kelly, his ex-chief of staff, for making disparaging remarks about him, including accounts of Trump praising Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hitler’s generals during his time in the White House.
Kelly, a retired U.S. Marines general, said in remarks published by The Atlantic on Tuesday that he witnessed Trump express an admiration for “Hitler’s generals” while serving as president. The article also reported that Trump said he wanted “the kind of generals that Hitler had” during a White House meeting.
In an interview published by The New York Times on the same day, Kelly said that he believed the former president is a “fascist” and a “dictatorial leader,” claiming that he saw Trump praise “the good things” Hitler did and confirming his past account of Trump calling U.S. soldiers killed or injured in action “losers and suckers.”
Trump weighed in on Kelly’s remarks in a post to Truth Social on Wednesday, claiming that his longest-serving White House chief of staff was a “lowlife” who simply “made up” his recollections while diagnosing him with “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
“Thank you for your support against a total degenerate named John Kelly, who made up a story out of pure Trump Derangement Syndrome Hatred!” Trump wrote. “This guy had two qualities, which don’t work well together. He was tough and dumb. The problem is his toughness morphed into weakness, because he became JELLO with time! The story about the Soldiers was A LIE, as are numerous other stories he told.”
“Even though I shouldn’t be wasting my time with him, I always feel it’s necessary to hit back in pursuit of THE TRUTH,” he added. “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! 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.”
While Trump’s post did not specify whether he was referring to his alleged praise of Hitler and Nazi generals as a “lie,” Trump campaign adviser Alex Pfeiffer previously told Newsweek that the purported remarks were “absolutely false” and that “President Trump never said this.”
Newsweek reached out for comment to Trump’s office via email on Wednesday night.
In the 2022 book The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021, journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser wrote that Trump once asked Kelly why he was not “like the German generals” while both were serving in the White House.
Kelly reportedly replied to his then-boss that the German generals “tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off,” prompting Trump to tell him that he was wrong and claim that the generals were instead “totally loyal” to Hitler.
Update 10/23/24, 10:19 p.m.: This article was updated with further context and information.