Donald Trump once said: ‘I need the kind of generals that Hitler had’

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It’s every day now – every single day, there are like ten “this should be disqualifying for Donald Trump” stories. Some of the stories are old, some are new. If you ask me, almost none of these stories actually move the needle with MAGA cultists. The MAGA faithful will still vote for Trump even if he spit on them and slapped their mothers. Will these stories move “undecided voters” though? I have no idea. The Atlantic published a story on Tuesday about Trump’s behavior when he was in the White House. The two significant stories from this Atlantic piece:

In April 2020, Vanessa Guillén, a 20-year-old Army private, was bludgeoned to death by a fellow soldier at Fort Hood, in Texas. The killer, aided by his girlfriend, burned Guillén’s body. Guillén’s remains were discovered two months later, buried in a riverbank near the base, after a massive search. Guillén, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, grew up in Houston, and her murder sparked outrage across Texas and beyond. Fort Hood had become known as a particularly perilous assignment for female soldiers, and members of Congress took up the cause of reform. Shortly after her remains were discovered, President Donald Trump himself invited the Guillén family to the White House. With Guillén’s mother seated beside him, Trump spent 25 minutes with the family as television cameras recorded the scene.

In the meeting, Trump maintained a dignified posture and expressed sympathy to Guillén’s mother. “I saw what happened to your daughter Vanessa, who was a spectacular person, and respected and loved by everybody, including in the military,” Trump said. Later in the conversation, he made a promise: “If I can help you out with the funeral, I’ll help—I’ll help you with that,” he said. “I’ll help you out. Financially, I’ll help you.” Natalie Khawam, the family’s attorney, responded, “I think the military will be paying—taking care of it.” Trump replied, “Good. They’ll do a military. That’s good. If you need help, I’ll help you out.”

…In an Oval Office meeting on December 4, 2020, officials gathered to discuss a separate national-security issue. Toward the end of the discussion, Trump asked for an update on the McCarthy investigation. Christopher Miller, the acting secretary of defense (Trump had fired his predecessor, Mark Esper, three weeks earlier, writing in a tweet, “Mark Esper has been terminated”), was in attendance, along with Miller’s chief of staff, Kash Patel. At a certain point, according to two people present at the meeting, Trump asked, “Did they bill us for the funeral? What did it cost?” According to attendees, and to contemporaneous notes of the meeting taken by a participant, an aide answered: Yes, we received a bill; the funeral cost $60,000.

Trump became angry. “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f–king Mexican!” He turned to his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and issued an order: “Don’t pay it!” Later that day, he was still agitated. “Can you believe it?” he said, according to a witness. “F–king people, trying to rip me off.”

Khawam, the family attorney, told me she sent the bill to the White House, but no money was ever received by the family from Trump. Some of the costs, Khawam said, were covered by the Army (which offered, she said, to allow Guillén to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery) and some were covered by donations. Ultimately, Guillén was buried in Houston.

The personal qualities displayed by Trump in his reaction to the cost of the Guillén funeral—contempt, rage, parsimony, racism—hardly surprised his inner circle. Trump has frequently voiced his disdain for those who serve in the military and for their devotion to duty, honor, and sacrifice. Former generals who have worked for Trump say that the sole military virtue he prizes is obedience. As his presidency drew to a close, and in the years since, he has become more and more interested in the advantages of dictatorship, and the absolute control over the military that he believes it would deliver. “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” Trump said in a private conversation in the White House, according to two people who heard him say this. “People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.” (“This is absolutely false,” Pfeiffer wrote in an email. “President Trump never said this.”)

[From The Atlantic]

“It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f–king Mexican” and “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.” Those two quotes would have ended any politician’s career forever. Not only that, no one in that politician’s family would even be able to run for office or be part of the political world at any point. There would be editorials and cable news would light a bonfire if a sitting senator or any other presidential candidate had made those two statements. But because it’s Trump, it’s like… yeah, he totally said that and it’s just another Tuesday.

More on Trump’s love of Hitler. Trump and Kanye West really are birds of a feather.

Trump Homeland Security Official Kevin Carroll: Trump admires Hitler. He frequently said to senior staff, ‘Why don't my generals support me the way that Hitler's generals supported him?’ The man quotes Hitler. And it's not as if he's accidentally quoting him. When it's brought to… pic.twitter.com/g3n8OYK3aC

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 22, 2024

Listen for yourself. Trump's top advisor lays out why Trump should be considered a FASCIST.https://t.co/GqQYLuVEj5 pic.twitter.com/7YPbfoLTLU

— Michael Donnelly 🗳 (@donnellymjd) October 22, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

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  3. Donald Trump once said: ‘I need the kind of generals that Hitler had’

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