Former US president Donald Trump reportedly complained about his generals not being loyal enough to him, at one point lamenting they did not act enough like Adolf Hitler’s generals in World War II, according to a new book.
The authors of The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021, The New York Times’ Peter Baker and The New Yorker’s Susan B. Glasser, detailed an exchange Trump had with his then-chief of staff John Kelly years before the January 6, 2021 insurrection, in an except published by The New Yorker on Monday.
“You fucking generals, why can’t you be like the German generals?” Trump reportedly asked Kelly, referring to German generals in World War II.
To which Kelly later responded: “You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?”
Still, Trump — in an attempt to rewrite history — insisted those generals “were totally loyal” to Hitler.
Baker and Glasser also revealed a draft resignation letter Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, wrote following him standing alongside Trump when the former president decided to stage a photo-op at Lafayette Square holding a bible after police had fired tear gas to disperse Black Lives Matter protesters. In the end, Milley decided to stay on and never sent the letter.
“It is my belief that you were doing great and irreparable harm to my country. I believe that you have made a concerted effort over time to politicize the United States military,” Milley wrote. “I thought that I could change that. I’ve come to the realisation that I cannot, and I need to step aside and let someone else try to do that.”
Milley also accused Trump of damaging the country on the international stage.
“It is my deeply held belief that you’re ruining the international order, and causing significant damage to our country overseas, that was fought for so hard by the Greatest Generation that they instituted in 1945,” Milley added. “Between 1914 and 1945, 150 million people were slaughtered in the conduct of war. They were slaughtered because of tyrannies and dictatorships.”
He continued: “It’s now obvious to me that you don’t understand that world order. You don’t understand what the war was all about. In fact, you subscribe to many of the principles that we fought against. And I cannot be a party to that.”
The book, which covers the Trump White House years, is set to be published on September 20, 2022.