Harris calls Trump a fascist after reported remarks he wanted generals like Hitler’s

Former White House chief of staff John Kelly spoke of Donald Trump’s alleged admiration for the Nazi dictator and his military in World War II

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Donald Trump at a campaign event in Duluth, Georgia, on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:20am, 24 Oct 2024Updated: 5:18pm, 24 Oct 2024

US Vice-President Kamala Harris said that she believes that Donald Trump “is a fascist” after his longest-serving chief of staff said the former president praised Adolf Hitler while in office and put personal loyalty above the Constitution.

Harris seized on comments by former chief of staff John Kelly, a retired US Marine Corps general, about his former boss in interviews with The New York Times and The Atlantic published on Tuesday warning that the Republican nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office he suggested that the Nazi leader “did some good things”.

Speaking at a CNN town hall, Harris said they offer a window into who the former president “really is” and the kind of commander in chief he would be.

When asked if she believed that Trump is a fascist, Harris replied twice: “Yes, I do”. Later, she brought it up herself, saying Trump would, if elected again, be “a president who admires dictators and is a fascist”.

US Vice-President Kamala Harris during the CNN town hall in Aston, Pennsylvania. Photo: AP

The Democratic presidential nominee said Kelly’s comments, less than two weeks before voters will decide whether to send Trump back to the Oval Office, were a “911 call to the American people” by the former chief of staff.