Trump Tells Chief of Staff Hitler “Did a Lot of Good Things,” Book Says | Donald trump

Visiting Europe to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, Donald Trump insisted to his then Chief of Staff John Kelly: “Well, Hitler did a lot of good things. . “

The remark by the former U.S. president on the 2018 trip that allegedly “stunned” Kelly, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general, is reported in a new book by Michael Bender of The Wall Street Journal.

Frankly, We Did Win This Election had a lot of following ahead of next week’s post. The Guardian has obtained a copy.

Bender reports that Trump made the remark during an impromptu history lesson in which Kelly “reminded the President which countries were on which side during the conflict” and “made the connection between WWI and WWII world and all of Hitler’s atrocities “. .

Bender is one of several authors to interview Trump since he was thrown from power.

He reports that Trump has denied making the remark about Hitler.

But Bender says unnamed sources reported Kelly “told the president he was wrong, but Trump was not discouraged,” pointing to Germany’s economic recovery under Hitler in the 1930s.

“Kelly pushed back again,” Bender writes, “and argued that the German people would have been better poor than subjected to the Nazi genocide. “

Bender adds that Kelly told Trump that even if his claim about the German economy under the Nazis after 1933 was true, “you can never say anything in favor of Adolf Hitler. You can not.

Trump encountered considerable problems during the centennial trip to Europe, even beyond his usual conflicts with other world leaders.

The decision to cancel a visit to an American cemetery proved controversial. Later, Trump reportedly called American soldiers who died in the war “losers” and “suckers.”

Kelly, whose son was killed in Afghanistan in 2010, left the White House in early 2019. He has since criticized Trump, telling his friends that the president he served was “the most flawed person I have.” never met in my life ”.

Bender writes that Kelly has done her best to overcome Trump’s “incredible disregard for history.”

“Senior officials have described his understanding of slavery, Jim Crow, or the post-Civil War black experience in general as vague to non-existent,” he writes. “But Trump’s indifference to black history was similar to his contempt for the history of any race, religion or creed.”

Concern over the rise of the far-right in the United States grew during Trump’s tenure and continues, as he maintains a grip on a Republican party determined to obstruct investigations into the deadly assault on the 6th. January against the US Capitol by supporters seeking to overthrow his defeated election.

Trump has made positive remarks about far-right and white supremacist groups.

During a presidential debate in 2020, Trump was asked if he would denounce white supremacists and militias. He struggled with the response and finally told the far-right group Proud Boys to “step back and be ready”.

In 2017, following a neo-Nazi march in Virginia that drew favorable remarks from Trump, German magazine Stern used on its cover an illustration of Trump giving a Nazi salute while wrapped in the flag. American. Its title: “Sein Kampf” – its fight.