(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Two high-profile former members of the Trump White House rebuked John Kelly, who is currently leading a smear campaign against his former boss, Donald Trump. Specifically, Kelly claims that Trump once said he wanted the “generals that Hitler had.”
Mick Mulvaney, who succeeded Kelly as White House chief of staff in 2019, and Mark Paoletta, former general counsel for the Office of Management and Budget from 2018 to 2021, published separate op-eds that directly refute Kelly’s dubious assertions
In a Monday piece for the New York Post, Mulvaney wrote, “Kelly’s central aim now appears to be establishing a tie between Trump and Hitler, using the former president’s alleged own words to do so. Curiously, absolutely no one else seems to recall comments similar to what Kelly has alleged.”
Mulvaney added, “Donald Trump certainly never spoke favorably about Adolf Hitler to me, which seems consistent with the fact that his daughter and grandchildren are Jewish.”
I take no joy in calling out my predecessor. But the whole "savior complex" thing has just gone too far. https://t.co/iXRy40lXI3
— Mick Mulvaney (@MickMulvaney) October 29, 2024
Paoletta echoed Mulvaney’s sentiments in a separate opinion piece for The Federalist, also published on Monday.
“I worked in the White House with Kelly, and I don’t believe a word he says,” Paoletta, a successful attorney, affirmed. “He was a terrible chief of staff who dishonestly kept information from President Trump to pursue his own agenda, an unelected former military official substituting his judgment for the judgment of the duly-elected president.”
Mulvaney similarly recounted that Kelly viewed his role as chief of staff as a “self-appointed overseer, charged with protecting the country against a president that those same people had elected.”
Mulvaney criticized Kelly for conveniently reviving the Hitler-Trump comparisons nearly six years after the alleged incident. He asserted that Kelly, not Trump, deserves to be labeled a fascist for actively obstructing the policies for which Trump was elected in 2016.
“One of Kelly’s current claims is that Trump doesn’t respect the outcome of elections,” Mulvaney added. “Yet if the general thinks that the White House chief of staff’s role is to function as ‘protection’ against the president, then it is he who is willing to ignore the wishes of the more than 60 million people who voted for Trump in 2016. Exactly zero of whom voted for Kelly.”
Paoletta concurred, recalling how Kelly “dishonestly tried to thwart” Trump’s policies, particularly regarding border security.
“Kelly was not only dishonest and duplicitous in pursuing his own agenda as chief of staff, but he has now chosen to help a radical, left-wing candidate who will destroy our country by smearing and lying about President Trump. Shame on him,” Paoletta wrote.
My latest op-ed laying out why I don’t believe a word John Kelly says. Kelly tried to thwart President Trump's efforts to secure border by dishonestly keeping info from him. Kelly is lying about Trump to help elect Kamala Harris, the most radical nominee in history. https://t.co/0XbGs8OOQb
— Mark Paoletta (@MarkPaoletta) October 29, 2024
