Donald Trump would rule like a dictator, his former chief of staff John Kelly warns

John Kelly has reemerged with a stark assessment of his former boss, Donald Trump.

The former Marine general, who served as Trump’s chief of staff and secretary of Homeland Security, told The New York Times that the former president is an authoritarian, disdainful of military sacrifice service and lacks empathy.

Kelly, who was Trump’s longest-service chief of staff, said he was not endorsing anyone in the presidential race because it would be inappropriate as a former military officer. But he made it clear he doesn’t support the former president.

“In many cases, I would agree with some of his policies,” he told the paper. “But again, it’s a very dangerous thing to have the wrong person elected to high office.”

Trump is “certainly an authoritarian” and “admires people who are dictators,” and meets the definition of a fascist, the former general said in the interview.

“Well, looking at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy,” said Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff from July 2017 to January 2019.

Kelly went on to say that Trump “never accepted the fact that he wasn’t the most powerful man in the world — and by power, I mean an ability to do anything he wanted, anytime he wanted.”

Kelly told the paper he felt compelled to speak out because of Trump’s recent statements that he would use the military against his domestic political opponents. The former general, whose Marine son was killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2010, stood by earlier comments he made that U.S. troops who were wounded, killed or captured are “losers and suckers” and not wanting to appear alongside veterans who are amputees.

In another report Tuesday, Kelly told The Atlantic that Trump once told him that he wished he acted like the “German generals,” which he later clarified meant specifically “Hitler’s generals.”

Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung told POLITICO in a statement that Kelly has “totally beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated because he failed to serve his President well.”

Harris spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement following The Atlantic report that “the people who know him best are telling us Trump is unhinged and pursuing unchecked power that would put us all at risk.”