“The former president is far-right, he is certainly an authoritarian, he admires dictators, he said so. So this certainly falls within the general definition of fascism.” These words do not come from Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders or Alexadria Ocasio Cortez. They were delivered by Donald Trump’s former chief of staff between 2017 and 2019, John F. Kelly.
This was expressed in the New York Times by the one who was one of those who spent the most time behind closed doors at the White House with Trump, the former general of the Marine Corps who was his leader staff the longest: “If you look, the definition of fascism is an ultra-nationalist, authoritarian, far-right political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, suppression forced opposition and belief in a natural social hierarchy. So certainly, in my experience, this is the kind of thing that he thinks would work best for governing America. »
“He certainly prefers the dictatorial approach to government, he never accepted the fact that he was not the most powerful man in the world. And by power, I mean the ability to do whatever I want at any time,” he added.
Kelly’s case is surely the most notable among former Trump collaborators who are warning of the dangers that the tycoon’s re-election would pose to the country.
Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris took advantage of these comments from former Trump aides to point out that “they called him unfit and dangerous,” including calling him contemptuous of the Constitution. of the United States. They said he should never become president of the United States again. We know why Mike Pence didn’t run with him again (as vice president).” Harris, on Telemundo, in his only interview with a Spanish-language media outlet, called Trump “a fascist until to the soul.”
But what do other former Trump collaborators say about him?
Journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser state in their book The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021 that Trump asked Kelly: “Why can’t you be like the German generals?” To which Kelly responded that German generals “tried to kill Hitler three times and almost succeeded.” Trump reportedly replied: “No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him. »
In a statement, Trump campaign adviser Alex Pfeiffer responded: “This is absolutely false. “President Trump never said that.”
However, more than a dozen former Trump administration officials have expressed support for former chief of staff John F. Kelly, saying the former president meets the definition of a fascist. In a new letter, reported by Politico, the former president’s former aides said: “This is Donald Trump.”
“General Kelly’s revelations are disturbing and shocking. But because we know Trump and have worked for and alongside him, we were unfortunately not surprised by General Kelly’s comments,” the letter said. “We commend General Kelly for highlighting in great detail the danger of a second Trump term. Like General Kelly, we did not take the decision to speak lightly. We are all lifelong Republicans serving our country. However, there are times in history when it becomes necessary to put country before party. “This is one of those times,” the letter said: “Everyone should heed General Kelly’s warnings.”
The letter is signed by former senior Trump administration officials, including Kevin Carroll, a former senior adviser to Kelly; former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews; former Undersecretary of Homeland Security Elizabeth Neumann; Anthony Scaramucci, former White House communications director; former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor; Stephanie Grisham, former White House press secretary; former press secretary to the vice president, Alyssa Farah Griffin; and Vice President Pence’s former national security adviser, Olivia Troye.
The letter’s release also comes at a time when several other Republicans are splitting from their party and publicly supporting Harris, including former Michigan Congressman Fred Upton and the Republican mayor of Waukesha, Wisconsin, the most large Republican town in the county. State.
In an article for Truth Social, Trump criticized Kelly, a former four-star general, as a “criminal” and a “total degenerate” who “made up a story out of pure hatred.” This guy had two qualities that don’t go well together: he was tough and stupid. The problem is that his toughness has turned into weakness.
But there is more
Mark Milley, a retired US Army general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump and Joe Biden, called Trump a “fascist at heart” and noted that he was causing “harm serious and irreparable. Milley even says he fears being court-martialed if Trump defeats Kamala Harris. “He’s a walking advertisement for what he’s going to try to do,” Milley recently warned former colleagues, veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward wrote in a book. Woodward quotes Steve Bannon – former Trump campaign manager and White House strategist fresh from prison for contempt of Congress – as saying of Milley: “We’re going to hold him accountable. »
Woodward also says Milley has received “a relentless barrage of death threats” since his retirement last year, and quotes the former general who told him about Trump: “No one has been more dangerous to this country . I had my suspicions about his mental deterioration etc., but now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person for this country. A fascist at heart.
Another case is that of John Bolton, former national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019. Trump allegedly fired him after Bolton tried to stop him from inviting the Taliban to Camp David for peace talks (an idea that Trump ultimately dismissed). And what does Bolton say about his former boss? That “he is not fit to be president” and that “he does not have the brains” to lead a dictatorship, despite his admiration for this type of leader, according to an interview with the French media Le Figaro. In the interview, he disparaged not only Trump’s intellectual abilities, but also his professional career: “He’s a real estate developer, for God’s sake!”
Mark Esper was Secretary of Defense under Trump from July 2019 to November 2020, when Trump fired him with a tweet. During his tenure, Esper repeatedly clashed with Trump, refusing to launch “missiles into Mexico to destroy drug labs” and deploy troops across the country amid protests for racial justice of 2020. Esper publicly opposed Trump’s threat to use the military against protesters. the Insurrection Act of 1807.
Esper now says Trump “has leanings” toward fascism: “I think that’s something we should be wary of.” » Esper supported Kelly’s claims on CNN and recalled that Trump was “very concerned about showing injured American soldiers in public.” “[Trump] I thought we should hide them. “And our view, my view and that of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was that these were American heroes and it was important to show the American people and their colleagues that when our heroes come back injured, we take care of them,” he added. ” said Esper. , who, asked whether there are controls to prevent Trump from using the military to persecute his political rivals, said: “I fully believe that uniformed officers will fulfill that oath of office. obey the Constitution and will not take an oath of loyalty to the President of the United States.
Trump’s first Defense Secretary, James Mattis, clashed with Trump during his term over the United States’ treatment of its allies. He resigned in December 2018, a day after Trump announced the abrupt withdrawal of US troops from Syria, and said already in 2020: “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the people American, don’t even try to unite the American people. to unite the American people, try it. Instead, try to divide us.
Mattis said Trump made a mockery of “the Constitution.” Additionally, the former Defense Secretary was so worried that former President Trump would order a nuclear attack on North Korea that he slept in sweats in case he received a late-night emergency call and spent time at the National Cathedral praying to try to avoid. war, according to Woodward’s book.
Cassidy Hutchinson, former advisor to Trump’s last chief of staffMark Meadows testified before the House Investigative Committee around Jan. 6 and said Trump knowingly led armed supporters to storm the Capitol. “As an American, I was disgusted,” he said of Trump’s role in trying to overturn the election: “It was unpatriotic. It wasn’t American. “We were watching the Capitol building be defaced by a lie. »
The White House communications director between April and December 2020, Alyssa Farah Griffin, declared for her part: “I made the decision to resign because I saw where this was going, and I didn’t feel feel comfortable being part of this message. to the public that the election results could move in another direction.” Farah Griffin called Trump’s messages to women “scary” and “infantilizing” and predicted that Trump “is going to try to steal the election” again.
Rex Tillerson, an Exxon Mobil executive who served as secretary of state under Trump from February 2017 to March 2018, described Trump as “pretty undisciplined: he doesn’t like to read, he doesn’t read reports” and added : “His understanding of world events [y] “His understanding of American history was really limited.”
Mike Pence, a former vice president and Trump confidant for years, distanced himself from the mogul after the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol and said, “Anyone who puts themselves above the Constitution should never be president of the United States, and anyone who asks Anyone who puts it above the Constitution should never be president again. The American people deserve to know that on that fateful day, President Trump demanded that I choose between him and our Constitution. “I chose the Constitution and I always will.”
The mogul’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, described himself as Trump’s “licensed attack dog.” Cohen later became the star witness in Trump’s criminal trial regarding his payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, in which Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records to interfere in elections Americans of 2016. a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator and a conman,” Cohen says.
