Trump wanted his advisors to ‘be like wartime German generals’, new book claims
The US president reportedly spoke admiringly of Nazi Germany’s military prowess
Former President Donald Trump wanted his military advisors to be more like “the German generals in World War II,” according to a new book about the Trump presidency that quotes from his administration’s top personnel.
Trump reportedly relayed this vision to Chief of Staff John Kelly as part of his irritation that his own generals were prone to push back on his orders rather than accept them with blind loyalty.
When Kelly responded, “You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?” Trump disputed this history, insisting, “No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him.”
This exchange is recounted in the new book The Divider, from married journalist couple Susan Glasser and Peter Baker, and in a New Yorker excerpt.
The book features interviews with several of Trump’s top generals, almost all of whom did not enjoy working for the president, and recounts how Trump appointed Mark Milley as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the hopes that his military advisors would serve as “yes-men” who would sign off on all of his proposals.
A US president speaking admiringly of Nazi Germany’s military prowess is unusual considering it was largely employed for the systematic mass slaughter of Europe’s Jews, but Trump was known for prizing staff loyalty above all else.
This made his military officers uncomfortable, yet many of them continued to stick around, according to the book.
Milley, for example, drafted a letter of resignation the week after he accompanied Trump on a militarised photo-op to a Washington, DC church at the height of the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests during the summer of 2020, writing that the president is “ruining the international order” formed on the back of an earlier generation that “has fought against fascism, has fought against Nazism.”
Yet Milley stayed in his role, and today remains chairman of the Joint Chiefs under President Joe Biden.
In the run-up to the 2020 election, Milley also feared that Trump might seek out a “Reichstag moment” to exploit his own lies about the election being rigged, referring to Adolf Hitler’s propagandistic exploitation of the Reichstag fire in 1933 as justification for seizing control of Germany.
Milley even believed Trump’s behaviour to be “Hitler-like,” according to the book.
His fears included that the president could declare martial law or invoke the Insurrection Act; Milley secretly communicated with a back channel of administration and military officials in attempts to keep the peace.
Trump’s volatility in the period after the election was also provoked by Israel’s then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Milley, who believed that Netanyahu was trying to provoke the president to launch a military strike against Iran before he left office.
In a conversation Glasser first reported in the New Yorker last year, Milley said he personally confronted Netanyahu in Jerusalem and told him to back off, then warned Trump, “If you do this, you’re going to have a f–king war.”
Several attempts to assassinate Hitler were made by German military officers during Second World War, of which the most famous ones were the Oster Conspiracy of 1938 and Colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg’s bomb plot of 1944.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
