During his presidency, Donald Trump told his chief of staff that he expected his generals to be as loyal to him as the German generals were to Adolf Hitler during World War II. Journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser report on this in a new book, excerpts from which were published by The New Yorker magazine on Monday.
According to an excerpt from the book The Divider: Trump in the White House 2017-2021, which is expected to be released in September, Trump lodged a rather obscene complaint with White House chief of staff John Kelly, asking why America’s generals couldn’t be more like they used to be. German.
“What’s the general like?” asked Kelly. “German generals in World War II,” Trump replied. “You know they tried to kill Hitler three times and they almost succeeded,” Kelly replied. But Trump beat Kelly. “No, no, no. They were absolutely loyal to him,” the president told Kelly.
“In his (Trump) version of history, the generals of the Third Reich were completely subservient to Hitler; this is the model he wants for his military. Kelly told Trump that there was no such American general, but the president was determined to test him. claim,” the quote reads.
The author also describes how Trump clashed with his generals because he wanted to hold a massive military parade in Washington. In the summer of 2017, after returning from Bastille Day celebrations in Paris, Trump told Kelly he also wanted to hold a military parade, according to quotes. However, he has a condition. “Look, I don’t want anyone to get hurt at that parade,” Trump said, noting that it wouldn’t do him any good.
“Kelly couldn’t believe what she just heard,” the quote continued. “This is a hero,” he told Trump. “There’s only one group of people in our society that’s bigger than them – and they’re buried in Arlington,” Kelly added, noting that her son Robert, who was a lieutenant and died in Afghanistan, is buried at Arlington National. Grave. “I don’t want them there,” Trump repeated, saying he didn’t want injured soldiers in the parade.
Further debate on the military parade took place at a briefing attended by Deputy Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Air Force General Paul Selva in addition to Kelly. Trump asked Selva what she thought of such a parade. “I didn’t grow up in the United States, I grew up in Portugal,” Selva told him. “Portugal is a dictatorship and parades show who has guns. And we don’t do that in this country,” he added. Trump then asked in disbelief, “So you don’t like the idea?” “No,” Selva replied, emphasizing, “This is what dictators do.”
Most of the quotes concern General Mark Milley, the chief of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. When Trump offered him the job, Milley told him, “I’ll do whatever you want me to do.” However, the president was quick to oppose it.
General Milley’s frustration with President Trump peaked on June 1, 2020, when Black Lives Matter protesters filled Lafayette Square near the White House. Trump demanded the military disperse the protesters. But Milley and other top officials turned it down, and Trump reacted angrily. “You are all losers!” shouted the head of the White House. “Can’t you just shoot them? Shoot them in the leg or something?” stated in the book.
After the National Guard and police cleared the square, General Milley briefly joined the president and others for a walk through the empty park so Trump could snap photos in front of the church on the other side. The authors say General Milley later regarded his decision to join the president as a “misjudgment that will haunt him forever.”
A week after this incident, Milley wrote – but never sent – a letter of resignation. In it, he accused Trump of politicizing the military, destroying the international order, failing to value diversity and embracing tyranny, dictatorship and extremism. But Milley finally decided to stay in office. According to the book’s author, he wanted to ensure that the military served as protection against an increasingly out-of-control president.
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