Former President Donald Trump suggested the U.S. military should be more like Adolf Hitler’s army in World War II and praised German generals for their loyalty to the Third Reich, according to a new report.
Trump once complained about some of his top military aides, wondering why they couldn’t be more like the Nazi regime, according to an excerpt of the book The Divider by journalists Susan Glasser and Peter Baker, highlighting the strained relationship between Trump and some of his top military officials behind closed doors.
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“Why can’t you be like the German generals?” Trump asked then-White House chief of staff John Kelly in a conversation early on in his term, according to the book. “The German generals in World War II.”
“You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?” Kelly purportedly responded.
“No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,” Trump insisted, according to the book.
Kelly served as the White House chief of staff during the first half of Trump’s term, resigning in early January 2019. Both Kelly and Trump publicly butted heads while in office, but this previously unreported conversation demonstrates how some of the former president’s top military advisers were reportedly growing increasingly frustrated during his final days in office.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley also chastised Trump for those kinds of comments, accusing the former president of damaging the country’s international reputation by attempting to politicize the U.S. military. Milley rebuked Trump in a drafted resignation letter, accusing him of subscribing to “many of the principles we fought against.”
“Between 1914 and 1945, 150 million people were slaughtered in the conduct of war. They were slaughtered because of tyrannies and dictatorships,” Milley wrote. “That generation, like every generation, has fought against that, has fought against fascism, has fought against Nazism, has fought against extremism. It’s now obvious to me that you don’t understand that world order. You don’t understand what the war was all about.”
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Ultimately, Milley decided to stay in the position, contending he could do more in his position to stop Trump from carrying out what he considered to be significant damage to the country.
The Divider, which outlines behind-the-scenes details and unreported conversations that occurred inside the White House during Trump’s presidency, is scheduled to be released on Sept. 20.
