During his time in the Oval Office, Donald Trump wanted Pentagon generals to be like the generals of Nazi Germany in World War II, according to an excerpt from the book in the New Yorker.
In an exchange with his former White House chief of staff, John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, Trump complained: “You can generals, why can’t you be like the German generals?”
Kelly asked which generals he did, to which Trump replied, “German generals in World War II.”
According to the excerpt published by the New Yorker from Peter Baker and Susan Glasser’s The Divider: Trump in the White House, an incredulous Kelly noted that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was almost killed by one of his own generals.
“No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,” replied Trump, apparently unaware of Claus von Stauffenberg’s July 1944 plot to kill Hitler with a bomb at Wolf’s Lair camp headquarters.
Kelly told Trump that there were no American generals who observed total loyalty to a president. Instead, they swear, like all military personnel, to “support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
The dramatic back-and-forth occurred during a dispute sparked by Trump’s admiration for military parades, gleaned in part from personal observation of Bastille Day celebrations in France hosted by that country’s president, Emmanuel Macron.
Trump doggedly wanted a similar military parade to mark Independence Day on July 4. But his cabinet staff were less enthusiastic and it became a point of contention.
According to the excerpt, a French general overseeing the 2017 Bastille Day parade in Paris turned to one of his American counterparts in Trump’s delegation and said, “You’ll do it next year.” . The idea was sown.
Trump, upon his return to Washington, outlined a plan for the “biggest, biggest military parade in history for the Fourth of July.” But the plans went down badly with Trump’s cabinet staff.
“I’d rather swallow acid,” said Defense Secretary and former Marine Corps General James Mattis, who said a similarly grandiose military parade was unfeasible, in part because of the cost and the fear that the tanks would break up . the streets of Washington.
But Trump was already formulating his vision, telling Kelly, “Look, I don’t want anybody hurt at the parade. That doesn’t feel right to me.”
According to the post, the topic came up repeatedly. With each setback, Trump’s admiration for the military advisers he used to refer to as “my generals” cooled.
In an exchange between Kelly and Paul Selva, then the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Trump seemed surprised that the former servicemen were not supportive.
Selva, who had been raised under the Portuguese dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar, informed Trump that “the parades were to show people that they had guns. And in this country, we don’t do that.” He added, “We’re not who we are.”
“So you don’t like the idea?” Trump responded.
“No,” said the Jungle. “It’s what dictators do.”
In a statement to the magazine, Trump said: “They were very untalented people and once I realized that, I didn’t trust them, I trusted the real generals and admirals of the system.”