Book claims Trump wanted military to be ‘totally loyal’ like Hitler’s ‘German generals’

According to an exert from the book “The Divider: Trump in the White House,” by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, former President Donald Trump expressed a desire for the US military to loyalty on the same level as the generals who once answered to former German Chancellor Adolf Hitler.

The comments were reportedly made as Trump had an exchange with his White House chief of staff John Kelly, who is a retired Marine Corps general, Trump allegedly said: “You f***ing generals, why can’t you be like the German generals?”

Kelly then reportedly asked Trump to elaborate on which generals he was referring to, and Trump hit back by saying: “The German generals in World War II.”

Kelly reportedly questioned Trump’s thinking by saying “You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?” Trump reportedly responded: “No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him.”

Kelly served as the White House chief of staff during the first half of Trump’s Presidency before, resigning in early January 2019. Kelly and Trump had public disagreements during Kelly’s time in The White House. In 2018, Kelly alleged that Trump stated that “Well, Hitler did a lot of good things.”

Trump denied saying this and went on the offense against Kelly. In September, the then-president told reporters: “I know John Kelly. He was with me, didn’t do a good job, had no temperament, and ultimately, he was petered out. He got eaten alive. He was unable to handle the pressure of this job.”

Kelly hit out against Trump in 2020, telling some close friends that “The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it’s more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.”

Jared Kushner, who served as a senior advisor to Trump, also spoke of his disdain for Kelly when he referred to him as “consistently duplicitous.”

“One day he had just marched out of a contentious meeting in the Oval Office. Ivanka was walking down the main hallway in the West Wing when she passed him. Unaware of his heated state of mind, she said, ‘Hello, chief.’ Kelly shoved her out of the way and stormed by. She wasn’t hurt, and didn’t make a big deal about the altercation, but in his rage Kelly had shown his true character,” Kushner alleged at the time.

Kelly denied this version of the events and told The Washington Post: “I don’t recall anything like you describe. It is inconceivable that I would EVER shove a woman. Inconceivable. Never happen. Would never intentionally do something like that. Also, don’t remember ever apologizing to her for something I didn’t do. I’d remember that.”

A spokesperson for Ivanka Trump said Kushner’s version of events was accurate, according to The Post.