Donald Trump slammed his former chief of staff, John Kelly, as “degenerate” and “low-life” after the former US Marine Corps general received support from Kamala Harris for calling her former boss a fascist.
Kelly’s intervention pushed the debate about fascism firmly to the center of the US presidential election, and the Republican candidate turned his fire on his Democratic opponent. After exaggerating Vice President Kelly’s comments in a televised speech at a CNN town hall meeting, he falsely accused Harris of calling him Adolf Hitler.
Trump’s angry jumble of social media posts came amid fallout over Kelly’s comments in a New York Times interview in which the former US president recalled repeatedly praising Hitler’s achievements while in the White House.
In a separate interview with The Atlantic, Kelly recounted Trump lamenting that he did not have the kind of loyal generals he believed Hitler had in German military commanders.
Trump responded True community He called Kelly, who had been White House chief of staff for 18 months on stage — a “pervert….
“This guy had two qualities that didn’t work together,” he wrote. “He was stiff and dumb. John Kelly was a lowlife.
Kelly told the Times that Trump “fits the common definition of a fascist” and would rule as a dictator if re-elected.
In Wednesday’s statement, Harris — who has been issuing increasingly strident warnings on the campaign trail about Trump’s authoritarian outlook in the face of his increasingly threatening rhetoric — said in the interview that he sought “unmitigated power.”
He added that his “invocation” of Hitler was “deeply disturbing and incredibly dangerous.” He later told CNN moderator Anderson Cooper that he admitted Trump was a fascist and praised Kelly for sending a “911 call” to the nation.
Trump responded Post on X It received more than 20 million views and 292,000 likes, with Harris “going so far as to call me Adolf Hitler and anything else that pops into his mind” because, polls indicated, he had lost.
Steven Cheung, communications director for Trump’s campaign, accused Harris of “dangerous rhetoric” that he said was “directly attributable to multiple assassination attempts against President Trump.”
However, Kelly’s portrayal of Trump as an anti-democratic dictator was supported by Elizabeth Newman, the former deputy head of the Department of Homeland Security in his administration. told Politico That he “did not act by the rule of law”.
“Does he have authoritarian tendencies? Yes” she said. “Is he leaning towards those extreme nationalist elements? Absolutely.”
Trump’s Republican supporters downplayed Kelly’s intervention. Chris Sununu, the Republican governor of New Hampshire, That is his portrayal He said the former president’s “outrageous statement” and Trump’s own record of extreme statements “fired” for voters’ ratings.
“I respect that John Kelly A lot, but obviously, everyone knows there is a huge personal relationship rift,” Sununu told News Nation.
The row overshadowed other developments in the campaign, in which the Republican nominee extended a list of his latest threats to Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by the Justice Department to investigate allegations that he tried to alter the 2020 election and cover up classified documents.
Asked by conservative broadcaster Hugh Hewitt whether the president would pardon or fire Smith, Trump said: “It’s very easy. I will fire him in two seconds.
“We got immunity from the Supreme Court,” he said, a reference to a ruling last June by the court’s conservative majority that presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts performed in the line of duty.
