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John Kelly says Trump is “certainly an authoritarian,” fits the definition of a fascist
Washington — Former Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, Donald Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, said in a new interview that Trump prefers a dictatorial approach to government, occasionally remarked that Adolf Hitler “did some good things” and disliked appearing alongside amputee veterans.
Speaking with the New York Times two weeks from Election Day, Kelly shared what he says his former boss said about service members and disabled veterans, as well as how Kelly believes the former president would prefer to govern. Kelly said he would never tell Americans who to vote for, but, as Trump’s chief of staff from July 2017 to January 2019, he had a front-row seat to Trump’s reactions, habits of speech and actions.
The New York Times’ Michael Schmidt asked Kelly if he thinks Trump is a fascist.
“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,” Kelly said. “So certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America … Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”
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Perhaps most concerning to Kelly, as a longtime military officer, is how Trump “could never wrap his arms around why people would serve the country in uniform,” he said. Schmidt asked if Trump said more than once that service members who die for America on the battlefield were “suckers and losers.”
“Yes,” Kelly responded, saying Trump would often get on a tangent about the late Sen. John McCain’s military service. Trump has repeatedly criticized McCain, saying in 2015 that he likes “people who weren’t captured.”
“He would say it at times, sometimes unexpectedly, but he never could wrap his arms around why people would serve the country in uniform,” Kelly said. “What was in it for them? That was a general theme.”
In response to Kelly’s New York Times interview, the Trump campaign said Kelly’s stories are “debunked” and “fabricated.”
“John Kelly has totally beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated because he failed to serve his president well while working as chief of staff and currently suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” said Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung. “President Trump has always honored the service and sacrifice of all of our military men and women, whereas Kamala Harris has completely disrespected the families of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, including the Abbey Gate 13.”
Kelly said Trump would also say “it doesn’t look good for me” to stand alongside veterans who have lost limbs.
“Well, certainly his, his not wanting to be seen with amputees, amputees that lost their limbs in defense of this country fighting for every American, him included, to protect them, but didn’t want to be seen with them,” Kelly said. “That’s an interesting perspective for a commander in chief to have.”
“He would just say, ‘Look, it doesn’t look good for me,'” Kelly added. “So anyways, I don’t know. Not a psychiatrist. If you’re a psychiatrist, I guess you could take a stab at some of these questions, but I’m not.”
Kelly said the former president would also “occasionally” say Hitler “did some good things, too.”
“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,'” Kelly said Trump told him. “And of course, if you know history, again I think he’s lacking in that. If you know what history was all about, it would be pretty hard to make an argument that he did anything good.”
Kelly also recounted his conversations with Trump about Hitler in a story published by The Atlantic on Tuesday.
Kelly told the Times that Trump “certainly prefers the dictator approach to government” and “admires people who are dictators.”
“I think he’d love to be just like he was in business — he could tell people to do things and they would do it,” Kelly said, acknowledging that he didn’t know Trump when he was only a businessman, before his venture into presidential politics. “And not really bother too much about whether what the legalities were and whatnot.”
contributed to this report.
A beloved grizzly bear known as an ambassador for her species was fatally struck on a highway in Wyoming, National Park Service officials said Wednesday.
Grizzly bear 399, who got her name through a research number assignment in 2001, had a yearling cub with her when she was hit on a highway in Snake River Canyon south of Jackson, authorities said. The cub’s whereabouts are unknown, but there’s no evidence to suggest that it was injured.
The driver is OK, officials said. While the circumstances of the fatal crash were not immediately clear, authorities said 49 grizzly bears died because of vehicle collisions between 2009 and 2023.
Grizzly bears generally live to be around 25, though some in the wild have lived for over 35 years, according to the Fish & Wildlife Service. Grizzly bear 399 was 28 when she was killed.
George Frey / Getty Images
Wildlife photographer Thomas D. Mangelsen previously described the bear as his muse.
“Her intelligence, her behavior, her beauty,” Mangelsen told “60 Minutes” in 2018. “The fact that she’s had all these offspring. There’s not many bears that I know of that’s had three sets of triplets.”
In 2020, she was spotted with four cubs.
Mangelsen is not alone in appreciating grizzly bear 399. People from around the world followed her for decades, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator Hilary Cooley.
“At 28 years old, she was the oldest known reproducing female grizzly bear in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem,” Cooley said.
Her identity was confirmed through ear tags and a microchip.
Before 1800, there were an estimated 50,000 grizzly bears living throughout 18 western States, including Wyoming, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. By 1975, the population in the 48 contiguous states was reduced to between 700 to 800.
After decades of being listed as threatened in the lower 48 states under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, the population has grown to at least 1,923 grizzly bears in the 48 contiguous states.
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Gun control is one of the most polarizing issues in American politics, and it’s been a topic of contention in the 2024 presidential election. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have been at odds over guns — Trump has told voters Harris “wants to confiscate your guns,” a point Harris denies. She wants to see stronger gun control laws on the books but also says she’s a gun owner. Here are Trump’s and Harris’ stances and policy plans to address gun violence in America.
Kamala Harris’ stance on guns
- Harris says she favors the Second Amendment and said in the Sept. 10 debate with Trump that she owns a gun, a revelation she originally made when she ran for president in In 2019. “I own a gun for probably the reason a lot of people do — for personal safety,” she said at the time. “I was a career prosecutor.” She recently told 60 Minutes she owns a Glock and has fired it at a shooting range.
- Harris oversees the White House Office of Gun Violence and Prevention, which was created by the Biden administration in 2023 with an eye toward finding ways around congressional inaction on stronger gun control laws.
- The Biden administration in 2022 enacted the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in the wake of the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York. It represents the most significant update to gun safety law in almost three decades, augmenting background checks for gun buyers under 21, providing billions for mental health services and closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole” to prevent convicted domestic abusers from purchasing a firearm for five years. It also clarified the definition of gun dealers. The law faces challenges from 26 GOP-led states that are suing to block it.
- Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, also owns a gun and is an avid hunter. He even held an “A” rating from the NRA at one time, but his grade fell to an “F” in 2018, when he backed stricter gun laws in Minnesota following the Parkland, Florida, school shooting. On the campaign trail in October 2024, Walz went hunting with his own Beretta in an appeal to gun owners.
Kamala Harris’ policy plans on guns
- Harris oversees the White House Office of Gun Violence and Prevention, which was created by the Biden administration in 2023 in order to find a way around congressional inaction on stronger gun control laws.
- Her campaign website says if Harris is elected, she would “ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require universal background checks, and support red flag laws that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.”
- Though she says she is a Second Amendment advocate, Harris also favors stronger gun control measures. In a speech on Sept. 12, Harris promised to “pass an assault weapons ban, universal background checks and red flag laws.”
- While running for president in 2019, Harris vowed to take executive action on guns, saying in April 2019 that she would implement “near-universal” background checks, close loopholes to prevent those convicted of domestic violence from obtaining firearms and revoke licenses from gun manufacturers and dealers who break the law. In Oct. 2019 she said she supported a mandatory gun buyback program, but at the Sept. 10 debate, she told Trump, “We’re not taking anybody’s guns away, so stop with the continuous lying about this stuff.”
Donald Trump’s stance on guns
- Trump “believes that every American has a God-given right to protect themselves and their family and has proven through his actions that he will defend law-abiding gun owners,” his campaign said.
- The NRA endorsed Trump in May at its annual convention, and he has addressed the group several times, including in 2022, shortly after the Uvalde mass shooting.
- Shortly after taking office in 2017, Trump signed a bill that rolled back an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people with mental illnesses to purchase a gun.
- During a White House listening session with students and families affected by the 2018 Parkland mass shooting, Trump suggested bonuses for teachers who are “adept at guns” and offered support for providing concealed carry permits for teachers or retired military personnel on campus.
- After the Las Vegas mass shooting in Oct. 2017, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms under the Trump administration banned bump stocks, devices that greatly increase the rate of fire of semi-automatic weapons. The ban was later struck down by the Supreme Court.
Donald Trump’s policy plans for guns
- Trump’s campaign said in a statement that he would “terminate every single one of the Harris-Biden’s attacks on law-abiding gun owners his first week in office and stand up for our constitutionally enshrined right to bear arms.”
- He has not spoken on the campaign trail about specific policy proposals on guns. At the NRA’s Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in February, Trump promised that “no one will lay a finger on your firearms” if he wins the election.
- Trump said in the same speech he “did nothing” to restrict guns while he was in the White House, although his administration enacted the 2017 bump stock ban. After the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, he called on Congress to pass bipartisan legislation to strengthen and improve the national instant criminal background check system. And after the 2019 mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, Trump reiterated support for “red flag” laws and stronger background checks, although many Second Amendment activists fought the measure, and it was ultimately abandoned later that year.
