Trump’s former aides claim he lavished praise on the world’s worst despots including evil Nazi chief: John Kelly says he branded Putin and Kim Jong Un ‘ok guy’ and thinks Xi Jinping is ‘brilliant’
Donald Trump was complimentary of Adolf Hitler during the ex-president’s time in the White House, according to a shocking new report from CNN.
The network’s Jim Sciutto reported that multiple Trump administration insiders, including Kelly, said the Republican candidate was magnanimous in his praise of other dictators, including Putin, China’s autocratic leader Xi Jinping and North Korean despot Kim Jong Un.
‘He said, “Well, but Hitler did some good things.” I said, “Well, what?” And he said, “Well, (Hitler) rebuilt the economy.” But what did he do with the economy? He turned on his own people and the world,” Kelly said.
The comments are part of segments released from Kelly’s upcoming book The Return of Great of Powers.
After his brutal rise to power in the 1930s, Hitler was responsible for the deaths of millions of people after starting World War II. The Nazi ruler killed six million Jewish people alone in his death camps in Central Europe.
“And I said, ‘Sir, you can never say anything good about that man. Nothing.’ I mean, Mussolini was a great guy by comparison.”
Republican candidate Donald Trump greets fans at a rally in Rome, Georgia, on Saturday, March 9
According to a new book by his former chief of staff, Trump is full of praise for Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler
The book also references Trump’s admiration for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin
Trump is also a fan of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, despite his undemocratic policies
Trump’s love-hate relationship with Kim Jong Un is a saga that has continued since his ascension to the presidency in 2016
Trump pictured with former Chief of Staff John Kelly and former National Security Advisor John Bolton in 2018
Trump called Kim Jong Un “a great guy” and called Xi Jinping “brilliant,” while privately praising Putin in addition to his public admiration for the Russian leader. Trump has publicly called Putin “very, very strong.”
Just last week, Trump was widely criticized for hosting Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban, a darling of American conservatives despite his anti-democratic policies, at Mar-a-Lago.
Orbán’s approach appeals to Trump’s brand of conservatives, who have abandoned their embrace of limited government and free markets for a system that sides with their own ideology, said Dalibor Rohac, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
“They want to use the tools of government to reward their friends and punish their opponents, which is what Orbán has done,” Rohac said.
Orbán’s government has responded, repeatedly praising the former president.
Hitler’s praise may not come as a big surprise after Trump hosted infamous neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes and anti-Semitic rapper Kanye West at his Florida residence in November 2022.
“However, it is quite difficult to believe that he missed the Holocaust, and quite difficult to understand how he missed the 400,000 American soldiers who died on the European theater. But I think it’s more about the tough guy thing,” Kelly continued about Trump’s feelings toward Hitler.
Kelly went on to say that Trump would compliment Hitler’s ability to generate extreme loyalty among his inner circle as he accused his own inner circle of betraying him.
“He asked about the loyalty issues and how, when I pointed out to him that the German generals as a group were not loyal to him and in fact tried to kill him a few times, and he didn’t know that,” Kelly said.
“When he brought us in as generals, he really believed that we would be loyal—that we would do everything he wanted us to do.”
Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton told CNN that the ex-president considers himself a “big guy.”
‘He likes to hang out with other big boys, and big boys like Erdogan in Turkey can put people in prison and you don’t have to ask permission from anyone. He likes that,” the former United Nations ambassador said.
In response to the allegations, a Trump spokesperson said that Kelly and Bolton suffer from ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’.
“John Kelly and John Bolton have completely denied themselves and are suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. They need to seek professional help because their hatred is consuming their empty lives,” said Steven Cheung.
Kelly’s book explores “a new, more uncertain global order with reporting from the front lines of power, from existing wars to looming wars around the world,” according to a new synopsis.
Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un once exchanged threats of destruction and crude insults after North Korea conducted a series of high-profile weapons tests in 2017 to gain the ability to launch nuclear attacks on the U.S. mainland.
Trump had said he would rain “fire and fury” on North Korea and ridiculed Kim as a “little rocket man” on a suicide mission, while Kim responded that he would “tame the mentally deranged American lunatic with fire.”
But they stopped short of such rhetoric and instead developed a personal relationship after Kim abruptly contacted Trump in 2018 for talks about the fate of his advancing nuclear arsenal.
They met three times in 2018-19, starting with a summit in Singapore, making Trump the first sitting US president to meet a North Korean leader since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
Their meetings have made little progress since their second summit in Vietnam ended without any agreement in early 2019 after disputes over US-led sanctions on North Korea.
Neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes was invited to dinner at Mar-a-Lago in November 2022
Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un once exchanged threats of destruction and crude insults, but met twice during Trump’s presidency