Donald Trump has claimed that he “couldn’t stand” his ex-chief of staff General John Kelly and that he “fired him like a dog”, in his rage over damning revelations about his comments about veterans.
“John Kelly, by far the dumbest of my Military people, just picked up the theme of the Radical Left’s lying about Gold Star Families and Soldiers, in his hatred of me,” Mr Trump claimed in one of his many Truth Social rants on Wednesday. “He was incapable of doing a good job, it was too much for him, and I couldn’t stand the guy, so I fired him like a ‘dog.’”
“He had no heart or respect for people, so I hit him hard—Made no difference to me,” the former president added. “He’s already on record defending me all over the place. Nobody loves the Military like I do! Now he finally speaks back by making up fake stories, or confirming the made up stories of the Dems and Radical Left…”
Mr Trump lashed out after Gen Kelly provided a statement to CNN confirming that the former president called wounded or killed American soldiers “suckers” and “losers”.
Gen Kelly was the Trump White House chief of staff from 2017 until 2019, brought in to bring order to the administration following the departure of ex-RNC chair Rience Priebus after just six months in the job.
Gen Kelly confirmed details of a story published by The Atlantic in 2020 which outlined offensive comments by Mr Trump. The piece included allegations that Mr Trump refused to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018 as he was concerned about what the weather would do to his hair and that he didn’t grasp the value of honouring Americans who died in battle.
“Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers,” Mr Trump said, according to the article, which Mr Trump called “fake,” claiming that he thought killed soldiers were “absolute heroes”.
But Gen Kelly confirmed details of the story in his statement to CNN, saying that Mr Trump didn’t understand why Americans revered former prisoners of war as well as those killed in combat.
“What can I add that has not already been said?” Gen Kelly said. “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’
“A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’
“A person who… rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.
“A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.”
Mr Trump has previously argued that the late Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who spent years as a prisoner and was tortured during the Vietnam War, was “not a war hero”.
During his campaign in 2015, Mr Trump spoke about Mr McCain’s 2008 presidential run, saying, “he’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he got captured. I like people who weren’t captured”.
Recently retired Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen Mark Milley recently revealed in another piece in The Atlantic that Mr Trump disparaged Army Captain Luis Avila, a wounded soldier.
“Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded,” Mr Trump said, according to the article.
