Former US president Donald Trump told his chief of staff in 2018 that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “did a lot of good things,” according to a new book by Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender.
Bender says Trump made the comment to John Kelly on a 2018 trip to Europe to mark the centenary of the end of World War I, while the latter was giving him a quick history lesson on Germany and the world wars.
The report appears in Bender’s book “Frankly, We Did Win This Election’: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost.”
Kelly was reportedly “shocked” by Trump’s comments, which apparently referred to Hitler’s actions to build up the German economy in the 1930s.
He “told the president that he was wrong, but Trump was undeterred,” according to Bender. “Kelly pushed back again and argued that the German people would have been better off poor than subjected to the Nazi genocide.”
And at any rate, he told the president, “you cannot ever say anything supportive of Adolf Hitler. You just can’t.”
A spokeswoman for Trump denied the report. “This is totally false. President Trump never said this. It is made-up fake news, probably by a general who was incompetent and was fired,” she says.
Help us report truthfully on social media
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
— Gabriella Jacobs, multimedia journalist
Support our work
Support our work
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You're a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, July 7, 2021
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
