Joint Chiefs head said Trump was preaching Hitler's 'gospel' before Capitol riot

According to new book, General Mark Milley accused former president of sending his ‘brownshirts’ into streets, warned: ‘This is a Reichstag moment’

Top US General Mark Milley compared former president Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler, accusing him of preaching “the gospel of the Führer” as he deployed rabble-rousing rhetoric in a quest to cling to power, a new book says.

Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also referred to Trump’s supporters as “brownshirts in the streets,” and compared Trump’s attempts to discredit the election results in the run-up to the January 6 Capitol riot to the Nazi leader using an arson attack on the German parliament to seize absolute power, according to New York magazine, which obtained an advance copy of “I Alone Can Fix It,” by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker.

“This is a Reichstag moment,” he is said to have remarked.

The book, which purports to give an insider account of the final year of the Trump presidency, is slated to come out July 20.

According to NY Mag, in the book, Milley recalls that he was initially unconcerned for the state of American democracy when an old friend warned him that Trump and his backers were trying to “overturn the government.”

“They may try, but they’re not going to fucking succeed,” he reportedly told his aides. “You can’t do this without the military. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with guns.”

US President Donald Trump arrives to address the nation from the White House on the ballistic missile strike that Iran launched against Iraqi air bases housing US troops accompanied by Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, center, and US Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein, January 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Shortly after the January 6 insurrection, Milley met with House speaker Nancy Pelosi “to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike,” in the words of the senior Democrat.

Pelosi later told House Democrats in a conference call that Milley reassured her that there are steps in place to prevent Trump from firing nuclear weapons.

US President Donald Trump walks from the White House through Lafayette Park to visit St. John’s Church, June 1, 2020, in Washington. (AP/Patrick Semansky)

A week after the Capitol riot, Milley was quoted saying: “These guys are Nazis, they’re boogaloo boys, they’re Proud Boys. These are the same people we fought in World War II.”

The book dates Milley’s concerns regarding Trump to a June 2020 photo op by the former president at Lafayette Square near the White House, which was preceded by the violent removal of racial justice protesters.

Milley, who took part in the controversial event, later apologized for it.