Ex-chief of staff says Trump praised Hitler, wants unchecked power for himself

Washington: US Vice President Kamala Harris has accused Donald Trump of seeking unchecked power after his former White House chief of staff described him as a fascist who reportedly “wanted the kind of generals Hitler had”.

With two weeks until election day, retired four-star general John Kelly broke his silence about his former boss in a series of interviews depicting Trump as a wannabe dictator who planned to surround himself with loyalists who would not restrain him if he won a second term.

John Kelly served as Donald Trump’s chief of staff. They are pictured in the White House in 2018.Credit: AP

Trump’s campaign has pushed back aggressively on the reports. But in an interview with The Atlantic, Kelly confirmed that Trump had said he wished his military personnel showed him the same submissiveness that Adolf Hitler’s Nazi generals showed their leader during World War II.

He also told The New York Times, which released audio of the interview, that Trump had praised Hitler and had “commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too’.”

“He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government,” Kelly told the paper, adding that Trump “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 was homeland security secretary under Trump, before taking on the chief of staff role from July 2017 to 2019.

While Trump’s campaign claimed that the former general had “beclowned himself” and suffered from a case of “Trump derangement syndrome”, Harris said the comments offered “a window into who Donald Trump really is”.

“We know what Donald Trump wants. He wants unchecked power. The question in 13 days will be: what do the American people want?” Harris said at her Washington DC residence hours ahead of a CNN town hall event in the critical battleground of Pennsylvania.

Kelly is not the first former high-ranking staffer or the first military veteran to turn against his old boss.

His comments are significant, however, given both the timing and Kelly’s reputation as someone who has traditionally believed that men and women in uniform should not get overtly political.

Donald Trump and Georgia Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones at a faith meeting at a church in Zebulon, Georgia, on Wednesday.Credit: AP

While he has not endorsed a particular candidate, he told the Times that Trump’s recent comments about using the military against the so-called “enemy within” were so dangerous that he felt he had to speak out.

The reports have nonetheless given the Harris campaign a chance to reinforce a message they have been sharpening in the last stretch of the campaign: that Trump is increasingly “unhinged and unstable” and should not be given a second term.

However, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said Harris was a “stone-cold loser” who was getting “desperate”.

“That is why she continues to peddle outright lies and falsehoods that are easily disproven,” he said.

Trump has ramped up his attacks on the Democratic nominee, telling a rally in Pennsylvania on Sunday that Harris was a “shit vice president”. At a roundtable with Latino voters in Miami on Tuesday, he further criticised her, calling her “slow” and claiming she had a “low IQ”.

“This woman is the worst. I mean, it’s just unbelievable,” he said at the roundtable event, at which participants repeatedly praised Trump.

With Harris in Pennsylvania for the town hall, the Republican candidate headed to Georgia – the Deep South state that was a Republican stronghold for years until President Joe Biden flipped it in 2020.

Asked how Trump’s personal attacks on Harris, coupled with his increasingly lewd commentary (such as his recent remarks about golfer Arnold Palmer’s genitals) might play out with women – the demographic Trump is struggling with – Georgia Republican communications spokesman Richie Stone told this masthead: “I will never pretend to speak for women voters here; that’s something that might get me into some trouble.

Kamala Harris and a churchgoer hug at a church in Stonecrest, Georgia on Sunday.Credit: AP

“But I think you have to look past the mirror of, you know, ‘I’m this and I’m that’ because I think it goes right back to those kitchen table issues: inflation, the economy, gas prices.

“Also it goes both ways. I mean, have you seen the polling about where Vice President Harris has been [with men]?”

The latest polls show the gender gap between Trump and Harris is significant. A new USA/Suffolk University poll shows Trump is leading among men (53 per cent to 37 per cent) while Harris’ lead with women is 53 per cent to 36 per cent.

Nationally, the race remains neck and neck: the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate has Harris at 49.1 per cent, while Trump support nationally is 48.5 per cent – all of which is within the margin of error.

Harris’ town hall will start at 9pm (12pm AEDT) and comes on the date CNN proposed a second debate between her and Trump, which the former president declined.

Meanwhile, Biden sparked controversy while stumping for Harris in New Hampshire, telling Democrats: “We’ve got to lock him up”, before realising how his remark could be interpreted – as a president trying to weaponise the government, as Trump often claims – and moderating what he said.

“Politically lock him up,” Biden quickly added.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement: “Joe Biden just admitted the truth: he and Kamala’s plan all along has been to politically persecute their opponent president Trump because they can’t beat him fair and square.”

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