Donald Trump meets the definition of a fascist, former White House chief of staff John Kelly says
Donald Trump meets "the general definition of a fascist", his former White House chief of staff says. (Reuters: Marco Bello)
In short:
Donald Trump's former White House chief of staff, John Kelly, says he believes the ex-president meets the definition of a fascist, and would rule as a dictator if he could.
Trump's rival in the presidential race, Kamala Harris, has described him as "increasingly unhinged and unstable".
What's next?
The election is on November 5 (local time).
Donald Trump prefers the "dictator approach" to running a country, and openly wished he had "Hitler's generals" when he was US president, his former White House chief of staff says.
John Kelly, who also served as Trump's secretary of homeland security, is using the final days of the election campaign to warn he believes his former boss is a fascist.
He told the New York Times he believes Trump would govern like a dictator if he were allowed to.
"Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he's certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that," Mr Kelly said. "So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure."
Mr Kelly spent six months as homeland security secretary after Trump took office in 2017. He moved into the White House role in July of that year and served until early 2019, when Trump says he was "terminated" for being in "way over his head".
The retired US Marine Corps general publicly turned on Trump soon after leaving the role. He has previously accused Trump of calling fallen American service members "suckers and losers", and of repeatedly praising Hitler for doing "some good things".
John Kelly served as Donald Trump's White House chief of staff. (Supplied: US Department of Homeland Security)
The Trump campaign disputes Mr Kelly's claims. Spokesperson Stephen Cheung said in a statement:
"John Kelly has totally beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated because he failed to serve his president well while working as chief of staff and currently suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome."
'Surely you can't mean Hitler's generals?'
In a separate interview with The Atlantic, Mr Kelly discussed a conversation in which he said Trump asked him: "Why can't you be like the German generals?"
According to Mr Kelly's account, he then asked Trump: "Do you mean the kaiser's generals? Surely you can't mean Hitler's generals?"
Trump replied, "Yeah, yeah, Hitler's generals," Mr Kelly said.
Democratic candidate Kamala Harris said the comments suggested Trump was "increasingly unhinged and unstable".
"Donald Trump said that because he does not want a military that is loyal to the United States Constitution, he wants a military that will be loyal to him," she said.
"It is deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous that Donald Trump would invoke Adolf Hitler."
Other Trump administration officials and former members of his inner circle have levelled similar criticisms at Trump.
Mark Milley, who was America's highest-ranking military officer under Trump, described him as "fascist to the core" and "the most dangerous person to this country" in a recently published book by journalist Bob Woodward.
His former vice-president, Mike Pence, said Trump should "never be president of the United States again".
And John Bolton, a national security adviser to Trump, has described him as unfit to be president, and said he would be consumed by retribution if re-elected.
When asked in the past if he would rule as a dictator, Trump said he would be "dictator for one day".
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