October 23, 2024
Few top officials spent more time behind closed doors in the White House with Donald Trump than John Kelly, the former Marine general who was the former president’s longest-serving chief of staff, reports The New York Times.
With Election Day looming, Kelly—who is deeply troubled by Trump’s recent comments about employing the military against his domestic opponents— agreed to three on-the-record, recorded discussions with a The New York Times reporter about the former president, providing some of his most wide-ranging comments yet about Trump’s fitness and character.
Kelly was Homeland Security secretary under Trump before moving to the White House in July 2017. He worked to carry out Mr. Trump’s agenda for nearly a year and a half. It was a tumultuous period in which he drew internal criticism over his own performance and grew disenchanted and distressed by conduct on the part of the president that he considered at times to be inappropriate and reflecting no understanding of the Constitution.
In the interviews, Kelly expanded on his previously expressed concerns and stressed that voters, in his view, should consider fitness and character when selecting a president, even more than a candidate’s stances on the issues.
“In many cases, I would agree with some of his policies,” he said—stressing that, as a former military officer, he was not endorsing any candidate. “But again, it’s a very dangerous thing to have the wrong person elected to high office.”
He said that, in his opinion, Trump met the definition of a fascist, would govern like a dictator if allowed, and had no understanding of the Constitution or the concept of rule of law.
He discussed and confirmed previous reports Trump had made admiring statements about Hitler, had expressed contempt for disabled veterans, and had characterized those who died on the battlefield for the United States as “losers” and “suckers”—comments first reported in 2020 by The Atlantic.
Below are excerpts from Kelly’s comments.
- Kelly said that, based on his experience, Trump met the definition of a “fascist.” In response to a question about whether he thought Trump was a fascist, Kelly first read aloud a definition of fascism that he had found online. “Well, looking at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy,” he said. Kelly said that definition accurately described Trump.
- Kelly said Trump chafed at limitations on his power. “He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government,” Kelly said. 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 said.
- He said he was deeply troubled by Trump’s recent comments about using the military against domestic opponents. When Kelly left the White House in 2019, he decided he would speak out on the record only if Trump said something that he found deeply troubling or involved him and was wildly inaccurate. Trump’s recent comments about using the military against what he called the “enemy within” were so dangerous, he said, that he felt he had to speak out.
- Using the military inside the U.S.A. “And I think this issue of using the military on—to go after— American citizens is one of those things I think is a very, very bad thing; even to say it for political purposes to get elected, I think it’s a very, very bad thing, let alone actually doing it,” Kelly said.
- He said he believed Trump stood alone in his lack of understanding of history and the Constitution. Kelly said Trump lacked a fundamental understanding of basic American [who] has all but rejected what America is all about, and what makes America America, in terms of our Constitution, in terms of our values, the way we look at everything, to include family and government—he’s certainly the only president that I know of, certainly in my lifetime, that was like that,” Kelly said.
Research contact: @nytimes
