In his new book The Return of Great Powers, which comes out Tuesday, reporter Jim Sciutto interviews several of Trump’s former advisers. All of them stressed that Trump regularly lavished praise on authoritarian leaders around the world, calling Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán “fantastic,” Chinese President Xi Jinping “brilliant,” and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un an “OK guy.”

Horrifyingly, Trump also said, “Well, but Hitler did some good things,” according to John Kelly, who served as White House chief of staff from 2017 to 2019.

“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. And I said, ‘Sir, you can never say anything good about the guy. Nothing,’” Kelly told Sciutto. “I mean, Mussolini was a great guy in comparison.”

Kelly said that Trump also praised Hitler for achieving complete loyalty from senior Nazi officials—and Trump expected similar fealty from the retired generals he brought on to his cabinet.

“He would ask about the loyalty issues and about how, when I pointed out to him the German generals as a group were not loyal to him, and in fact tried to assassinate him a few times, and he didn’t know that,” Kelly said. “He truly believed, when he brought us generals in, that we would be loyal—that we would do anything he wanted us to do.”

“Hitler did some good things” would end absolutely anyone else’s campaign in America. And this guy still has a chance of winning.

  • no banana
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    2610 months ago

    I do like how Kim is just “an OK guy”

    • Flying SquidOP
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      610 months ago

      It’s a pretty big step up from “Little Rocket Man” though.

      • no banana
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        610 months ago

        I don’t know, Little Rocket Man does indicate a more complex vocabulary. If anything “OK guy” signals some mental decline.

        • Flying SquidOP
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          510 months ago

          I just meant in terms of praise or insult.

      • @[email protected]
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        fedilink
        510 months ago

        My memory of that little fight is that Kim came out sounding much more sane than Trump did. Which is REALLY saying something.

        But then they got together and made up, and Kim probably promised him that abandoned hotel, and suddenly they were best friends.