John Kelly, who once served as Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff, has gone on the record and agreed that the former president is a “fascist” and would seek to rule as a dictator if he returns to office in November, The New York Times reported on Tuesday evening. The paper published audio of an interview Kelly gave in which he explained that Trump “prefers the dictator approach to government” and believes he should have “an ability to do anything he wanted, anytime he wanted.”
Kelly is not the only former top Trump official sounding the alarm: Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump, has described him as “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person ever.” These remarks were also echoed by Jim Mattis, Trump’s former secretary of defense. Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper called Trump a “threat to democracy,” while former national security advisor John Bolton described him as “unfit to be president.”
And yet, Trump retains the zealous loyalty of the counselors he relied on most of all during his presidency: the faithful hosts at Fox News. Primetime hosts completely ignored Kelly’s remarks on Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning, Fox & Friends suggested that Trump critics were guilty of insubordination, with Fox host Brian Kilmeade even suggesting that Trump was “maybe not fully being cognizant of the third rail of German generals who were Nazis.” By Wednesday night, Fox host Jesse Watters was attacking VP Kamala Harris for citing Kelly.
- The Wall Street Journal editorial board and commentators like National Review Editor-in-Chief Rich Lowry and Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich previously praised the retired four-star general and Gold Star parent John Kelly as an “indispensable” and “unflinching” figure who “deserves the nation’s gratitude” for stopping Trump from exercising his worst impulses. Now, Kelly is publicly describing the former president as a fascist bent on ruling the United States as a dictator if he returns to power — while Trump is making clear that he will not allow himself to be surrounded by similar figures who could act as guardrails in a second term — and the same figures are still backing his candidacy.
- It took Fox News nearly 24 hours to play the audio of Kelly. In a triplet of recorded interviews released by The New York Times, Kelly went on the record over concerns he has about Trump. In a series of breathtaking quotes, Kelly claimed that Trump “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,” and that Trump has “commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too.’"
- The Los Angeles Times was the only one of five top U.S. newspapers to focus a front-page article on Kelly’s comments, while the Times continued to bury its own scoop.
- Newsmax host Greg Kelly railed against Kelly, Mattis, and Milley, saying their medals should be taken away and that they're “out for a buck.” Kelly's claim that Trump did not promote them is belied by reality: Trump appointed Milley as chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mattis as secretary of defense, and Kelly as secretary of Homeland Security and chief of staff in his White House.