Donald Trump fumed at his staff for not being more like those who served Adolf Hitler in World War 2, according to a new book.
The former President of the United States was said to have told his White House chief of staff, retired Marine Corps general John Kelly: "You f***ing generals, why can't you be like the German generals?"
The claim is made in new book The Divider: Trump in the White House by journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser.
Mr Kelly questioned the explosive remarks and asked which generals Trump meant, to which he replied: "The German generals in World War 2."
Mr Kelly then, according to an excerpt of the book published in the New Yorker, said to the president: "You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?"
Trump was dumbfounded and said: “No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him."
The book reveals a number of episodes that shows a tense relationship between Mr Trump and his most senior military commanders.
In one conversation from the book, Trump reportedly told Kelly he didn’t want any injured veterans involved in the Independence Day parade as it "doesn’t look good for me", the former President said.
Trump cited the Bastille Day parade where there were injured veterans, with lost limbs.
“Those are the heroes", Kelly said, not feeling brave enough to mention that his own son Robert was killed in action in Afghanistan.
“I don’t want them,” Trump repeated.
On another occasion, Mr Trump also demanded the military clear Black Lives Matter protesters from outside the White House in June 2020.
This led to General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, writing a resignation letter.
He did not send it but the New Yorker received an excerpt.
"It’s now obvious to me that you don’t understand that world order. You don’t understand what the war was all about. In fact, you subscribe to many of the principles that we fought against. And I cannot be a party to that," America's top military chief wrote.
In a statement to The New Yorker, Mr Trump said: "These were very untalented people and once I realised it, I did not rely on them, I relied on the real generals and admirals within the system."
Meanwhile, Donald Trump's Florida estate has been raided by the FBI as part of an investigation into his removal of official presidential records from the White House.
