Trump said Hitler 'did a lot of GOOD things' in 2018 conversation with chief of staff John Kelly in Europe to mark 100 years since the end First World War, book claims
Donald Trump apparently sparked a history lesson from a 'stunned' John Kelly during a 2018 Europe trip when the then-president said, 'Hitler did a lot of good things,' a new book claims
Kelly, then Trump's chief of staff, immediately pushed back against the comment, according to Michael Bender's upcoming book Frankly, We Did Win This Election obtained by The Guardian.
'You cannot ever say anything supportive of Adolf Hitler,' Kelly told Trump during a trip to Europe in 2018 to mark 100 years since the end of World War I, Bender wrote in excerpts published Wednesday. 'You just can't.'
Trump, however, was undeterred by Kelly's shock, instead going on to praise the Nazi leader's efforts to pull the German economy out of disarray in the 1930s after World War I.
Bender wrote that Kelly told Trump that the German people would have been 'better off poor than subjected to the Nazi genocide.'
The Wall Street Journal reporter said Trump denied making the comment.
'This is totally false,' Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington told DailyMail.com. 'President Trump never said this'
'It is made up fake news, probably by a general who was incompetent and was fired,' she added, taking a swipe at former chief of staff.
A new book details that Donald Trump (right) 'stunned' then-chief of staff John Kelly (left) when he said during a 2018 trip to Europe to commemorate the end of World War I that 'Hitler did a lot of good things'. The duo lays flowers at the grave of Kelly's son at Arlington National Cemetery on May 29, 2017
A December 2018 report revealed Kelly and Trump were no longer on speaking terms and on December 28, 2018, the then-president announced Kelly would be leaving by the end of the year.
The White House announced that Mick Mulvaney would replace Kelly as the White House chief of staff.
Notably, Vanity Fair reported in 1990 that Ivana, Trump's wife at the time and now ex-wife, told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that her husband kept My New Order near his bed, which is a book of Hitler's speeches.
Adolf Hitler is one of the most prolific dictator's in history, rising to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming Chancellor in 1933 and then assuming the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934.
Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender's book on the Trump's 2020 election loss will be released July 13
His radical expansionism agenda led to World War II and his campaign against the Jews led to the genocide of six million Jewish people in Europe.
Trump's comments seeming to praise Hitler prompted his then-chief of staff to give him a brief history lesson on the different sides in World War II, Bedner wrote in excerpts of his book.
Kelly 'reminded the president which countries were on which side during the conflict' and 'connected the dots from the First World War to the Second World War and all of Hitler's atrocities,' Bender writes.
Bender's book Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost comes out on July 13.
A report in The Atlantic about the 2018 Europe trip claimed that upon canceling a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, a U.S. military graveyard in France, Trump called the deceased American soldiers 'losers.'
Trump also said on the trip, according to that report, the some 1,800 Marines who died at Belleau Wood, France in World War I were 'suckers' for getting killed.
Trump has denied making these comments.
A 2020 report revealed that during Trump's trip he called deceased American soldiers 'losers' and 'suckers' for getting killed. The former president views a headstone at the Suresnes American Cemetery near Paris on November 11, 2018
The 45th president made a last-minute change by deciding not to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, blaming rain for disrupting transportation plans.
Four people with first-hand knowledge of the discussion that day, however, said Trump was worried his hair would become disheveled in the rain and did not think it was a priority to honor the fallen American military members.
John Kelly did attend the ceremony to honor the dead at that cemetery on November 10, 2018.
Trump did participate in an American Commemoration Ceremony at Suresnes American Cemetery, also near Paris, on November 11, 2018. It was also raining that day.
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