In a sane world, this might be the “October surprise” that may finish Donald Trump’s newest presidential bid.
The headline in The Atlantic says all of it: “TRUMP: ‘I NEED THE KIND OF GENERALS THAT HITLER HAD’”
The story doesn’t go there straight away, however eases the reader in with one other horrible Trump story. After personally promising the household of murdered Military soldier Vanessa Guillen that he would assist pay for her funeral, he misplaced his thoughts when he discovered the ultimate price was $60,000.
“Trump became angry. ‘It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican!’” wrote The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg. “He turned to his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and issued an order: ‘Don’t pay it!’ Later that day, he was still agitated. ‘Can you believe it?’ he said, according to a witness. ‘Fucking people, trying to rip me off.’”
However the primary course is Trump’s admiration for the sort of loyalty that Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler engendered from his army brass.
White Home chief of workers John Kelly listens as Donald Trump speaks at a briefing with senior army leaders within the Cupboard Room of the White Home on Oct. 5, 2017.
Of their e-book, The Divider: Trump within the White Home, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser reported that Trump requested John Kelly, his chief of workers on the time, “Why can’t you be like the German generals?” Trump, at numerous factors, had grown pissed off with army officers he deemed disloyal and disobedient. (All through the course of his presidency, Trump referred to flag officers as “my generals.”) Based on Baker and Glasser, Kelly defined to Trump that German generals “tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off.” This correction didn’t transfer Trump to rethink his view: “No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,” the president responded.
This week, I requested Kelly about their change. He advised me that when Trump raised the topic of “German generals,” Kelly responded by asking, “‘Do you mean Bismarck’s generals?’” He went on: “I mean, I knew he didn’t know who Bismarck was, or about the Franco-Prussian War. I said, ‘Do you mean the kaiser’s generals? Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals? And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.’ I explained to him that Rommel had to commit suicide after taking part in a plot against Hitler.” Kelly advised me Trump was not acquainted with Rommel.
Kelly needed to actually inform Trump to cease saying good issues about Hitler:
“He said, ‘Well, but Hitler did some good things,’” Kelly recalled. “I said, ‘Well, what?’ And he said, ‘Well, (Hitler) rebuilt the economy.’ But what did he do with that rebuilt economy? He turned it against his own people and against the world.” Kelly admonished Trump: “I said, ‘Sir, you can never say anything good about the guy. Nothing.’”
