While in the Oval Office, donald trump wanted the generals of the Pentagon to be like the generals of Nazi Germany in World War II, according to a book excerpt in the new yorker.
In an exchange with his former White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, Trump reportedly complained, “You fucking generals, why can’t you to be like the German generals?
Kelly asked which generals, prompting Trump to reply, “German generals in WWII.”
According to the New Yorker’s excerpt from The Divider: Trump in the White House, by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, an incredulous Kelly pointed out that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was nearly assassinated by one of his own generals.
“No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,” Trump replied, seemingly unaware of Claus von Stauffenberg’s July 1944 plot to kill Hitler with a bomb inside his Wolf’s Lair headquarters.
Kelly allegedly told Trump that there were no American generals who observed complete loyalty to a president. Instead, they swear, like all military personnel, to “uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
The eye-popping back-and-forth came in a row sparked by Trump’s admiration for military parades, gleaned in part by personally observing the July 14 celebrations launched in France by that country’s President, Emmanuel Macron.
Trump stubbornly wanted a similar military parade to mark the July 4 Independence Day holiday. But his cabinet staff were less enthusiastic and it became a point of contention.
According to the excerpt, a French general overseeing the July 14, 2017 parade in Paris turned to one of his American counterparts in Trump’s delegation and said, “You’re going to do this next year.” The idea was born.
Trump, upon his return to Washington, hatched a plan for the “largest and grandest Fourth of July military parade ever.” But plans went awry with Trump’s cabinet staff.
“I’d rather swallow acid,” reportedly said Secretary of Defense and former Marine Corps General James Mattis, saying an equally grand military parade was impractical in part because of the cost and fear that tanks do not tear. the streets of Washington.
But Trump was already articulating his vision by telling Kelly, “Listen, I don’t want any injuries in the parade. It doesn’t look good to me.
According to the publication, the subject came up several times. With each pushback, Trump’s admiration for the military advisers he complacently called “my generals” has cooled.
In an exchange involving Kelly and Paul Selva, then vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Trump seemed surprised that the former servicemen weren’t supportive.
Selva, who had grown up under the Portuguese dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar, informed Trump that “the parades were about showing people who had guns. And in this country, we don’t do that. He added: “That’s not who we are.”
“So you don’t like the idea?” Trump responded.
“No,” said Selva. “That’s what dictators do.”
In a statement to the magazine, Trump said: “They were people without talent and once I realized that, I didn’t trust them, I trusted the real generals and admirals of the system. .”