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DONALD TRUMP, DURING a visit to Europe while US president, told his chief of staff that “Hitler did a lot of good things,” an upcoming book.
Trump’s then chief of staff John Kelly was reportedly “stunned” by the remark, The Guardian said, citing a new book.
The exchange is recounted in the upcoming book, “Frankly, We Did Win This Election,” by Michael Bender of The Wall Street Journal, the British newspaper said.
The Guardian said it had obtained a copy of the book ahead of its publication next week.
Trump reportedly made the comment while Kelly was giving the president an impromptu history lesson during a 2018 visit to Europe to mark the end of World War I.
According to the book, Kelly had “reminded the president which countries were on which side during the conflict” and “connected the dots from the first world war to the second world war and all of Hitler’s atrocities.”
“Well, Hitler did a lot of good things,” Trump reportedly said.
Kelly reportedly “told the president that he was wrong, but Trump was undeterred,” emphasizing German economic recovery under Hitler during the 1930s.
“Kelly pushed back again,” the Guardian quoted Bender as writing, “and argued that the German people would have been better off poor than subjected to the Nazi genocide.”
Kelly told Trump that even if his claim about the German economy under the Nazis were true, “you cannot ever say anything supportive of Adolf Hitler. You just can’t.”
The Guardian said Bender has interviewed Trump since he lost the November 2020 election and the former president has denied making the remark about Hitler.
Kelly, a former Marine Corps general who left the White House in early 2019, has made a number of critical comments about Trump following the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of the former president.
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Well of course he did some good things but obviously he did exponentially more horrendous things. If you start painting things as black and white then you’ll never learn from the past.
@Sean McCarthy: “he did some good things”
And what were those things? There is a myth he started building the autobahns, this is not true. The first true Autobahn, the A 555, was built between 1929-1932 before he came to power.
@David Jordan: are you seriously suggesting that any villain could never have done a single worthwhile thing in their life?
While it pains me to point them out, among them are the Nazis anti-smoking campaigns, and animal welfare legislation.
No one wants to remember Hitler for anything good. Rightly so. But it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
Just like no one ever wants to remember celebrated historical figures for anything bad. It also doesn’t mean they were infallible. They just did more good than bad.
Hitler was just (very very much) the opposite.
@David Jordan: yes he did.
He was the very 1st person that introduced a law against animal cruelty.
I also red a new book that Trump hailed sa.tan and worshipped malphas
@David Jordan: Rest assured, Hitler was definitely calling the shots before 1933.
@Gerard: “Nazis anti-smoking campaigns”
Seems to be another myth.
Anti-smoking was not official Nazi party policy, no new anti-smoking laws were enacted.
Anti-smoking sentiment was born out Nazi ideas racial purity and promotion of Aryan fertility, and the racist beliefs that smoking was a bad habit of lower races and communists, there was also a belief that the tobacco industry was connected to the Jews. Some lower ranking Nazis campaigned against smoking, some obsessively, but there was no consistent top down policy aimed against smoking.
“While there was considerable opposition to smoking in Nazi Germany, there was no consistent Nazi policy to combat smoking, and what did exist built on pre-existing policies.”
“Although extreme measures were taken in isolated localities or by overzealous party members, there was a marked ambivalence to tobacco control at the highest levels. Many policies were contradictory; measures were often not enforced, and cigarettes were actively distributed to ‘deserving’ groups.”
Ref.:
Bachinger, E., McKee, M. and Gilmore, A., 2008. Tobacco policies in Nazi Germany: not as simple as it seems. Public health, 122(5), pp.497-505. https://core.ac.uk/reader/13101250
@David Jordan: now that’s an interesting comment. And pertinent with the current Bloomberg led global anti vaping, tobacco harm reduction campaign.
@David Jordan: you’ve already come to your conclusion so you’re just cherry picking where you draw lines so nothing counts.
No laws passed so it doesn’t count.
I’m sure overseeing the foundation of Volkswagen doesn’t count for some technical reasons.
I’m sure taking care of his own dog doesn’t count for some reason.
@David Jordan: imagine…having to explain to people that Hitler was in actual fact not a good guy..
@Gerard: ah I see Gorbels propaganda is still working even to this day…
@Gerard: taking care of his dog!!!! Are you for real…he masterminded the slaughter of humans at an industrial level & you’re giving him props cause he took lassie for walkee’s !!!
@Gerard: The first Beetle was produced in 1939 but only a hand full were made that year before the war broke out, production then switched to the Type 82 Kübelwagen (“Bucket car”), a military utility vehicle. 336,000 Germans (paying 5 marks a week) lost their deposit on the People’s car.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_K%C3%BCbelwagen
Wolkswagan ramped up production in 1942, using 15,000 slave laborers who were kept in the Arbeitsdorf concentration camp. The camp (designed by Albert Speer) was built to house slaves working in nearby Volkswagen factories, they choose between getting gassed and working for the Nazi founded company. Most worked on production lines making military vehicles.
“Klaus von Munchhausen, a lecturer at Bremen University, said today that he was suing Volkswagen on behalf of 30 Hungarian-born Jews, all living in Israel, who were chosen for slave labor — rather than the gas chamber — at Auschwitz.
So basically, yes, The Nazis founded Volkswagen and promised a delivery of cars for the German public, the People’s Car. They flailed on their promise, 336,000 lost their deposits, they started a war, and used 15,000 slaves to make military vehicles.
Again, what good did Hitler do?
Ref.:
“The legal action was a blunt reminder of Volkswagen’s roots not only as Hitler’s favored car company — the idea of a Volkswagen, or, ”people’s car,” was a prewar pet project — but also as a key player in the Nazi armaments industry, building war materiel ranging from jeeps to rockets.”
See: Arbeitsdorf Concentration Camp and “Adolf Hitler vs. Henry Ford: The Volkswagen, the Role of America as a Model, and the Failure of a Nazi Consumer Society”
@Hear me now: absolutely nobody is saying he was a good guy. People are saying that it’s impossible for him to have done nothing good in the entirety of his life. Black and white thinking is dangerous and there is far too much of it about nowadays.
@David Jordan: Without Hitler we wouldn’t have the perfect villains for Raiders of the lost Ark, give the guy a break.
@Garret Fawl: But good did the Romans do?
@Bananaquit: He doesn’t deserve to have being through good of for the bad he done. It is a disrespect to those killed if people do.
@Hear me now: I understand people are trying to say no one is 100% bad or good, nothing is back or white. I understand that.
But the specific examples cited in support of that, Volkswagen Car, Anti-smoking campaigns, and also Nature and Animal protection, are themselves not black and white.
Looking closer, I see their goals weren’t met, or the projects were started before the Nazis, or they were never official policy, or they petered out due to the war. Sometimes, if they accidentally did something seemingly nice, like nature and animal protection (which never really achieved anything, overridden by war), it stemmed from Nazi ideology of racial purity and a return to nature (ecofascism).
@David Jordan: Didn’t Germany turn from a wreck into an economic powerhouse under him in just a few years?
@Sean McCarthy: Jesus Christ
@Gerard: why do you love Hitler so much? Never in my life have I known anyone to talk about “all the great things Hitler has done”… who has brainwashed you so well?
@Bananaquit: literally no one is saying it was “impossible” for him to have done a good thing. However, it is completely pointless to talk about Hitler in a fawning way, like some sycophants have done here. These comments make me sick.
@Mickety Dee: that’s what slave labour does, mate
Twitter should not have blocked POTUS… I don’t agree with that. Media are trying to control narrative.. Lots of news happening but media not reporting it to suit their narrative
@MrJohne: they blocked factual lies, not the office…the man, because some people wilfully believe nonsense
@MrJohne: Never seen your account before, just like a lot of comments here either defending Trump, or attacking the media, or opposing politicians. Twitter is not an unregulated open forum. It is a private business which allows you to use its platform and features and (belatedly and often after being quite craven) bans people and removes Tweets if they violate its code of conduct/terms and conditions. Why didn’t you mention any of that? And as for the ‘narrative’ of the ‘MSM’, the kind of ‘media’ you refer to is worse, more partisan, more dishonest and more irresponsible than the ‘MSM’.
@MrJohne: er. No.
@SheepleDog: But why can’t people make up their own minds? Freedom of speech and all that.
@Noel_Random: er….spot on! The journal blocks people from cursing, never mind insurrection….
@MrJohne: so you think Twitter should have been forced to keep trump on their platform? What about Twitter’s Freedom Of Speech?
@Itsonlyme: so publish your own paper with its own comments section then. No one is stopping you.
I thought once he left office we wouldn’t have to hear any more of his ridicilious statements but alas it was not to be.
@Sue OB: but people love the lard bottom Ian people? People like soap.
He become the first leader to set wolf protection laws and establish hunting seasons which are still in use today.
Hitler was the first European leader to ban human zoos.
He was the first European leader to pass anti-smoking campaigns.
He also banned smoking in public places, established smoking areas.
He provided millions of jobs fixing economy.
He wanted to beautify Germany.Along with parks being built. This meant that littering was a crime and trees were not to be cut without the government’s permission.
NSV insurance was provided for German families which included disability insurance, health insurance, interest free loans.
@artur fil:Means nothing to the damage he did. He ordered troops to hang anyone with white flags outside their houses in Berlin. Provided jobs and financed them by killing wealthy Jews. Wolf protection laws? His dog didn’t fare too well when he poisoned him to test the cyanide pill. Brought in the laws so parents could parents had a right to ‘dispense’ with their physically or mentally disabled children. He was a truly vile human being.
@artur fil: Not surprised to see your account promoting hitler
@artur fil: you seriously need to have your brain looked at
@Bill Spill: What is wrong with my account?
I do not promote anybody I just explain what he did. Obviously he was terrible person but I would consider Stalin much worest.
@Bill Spill: How are they promoting Hitler? They’re listing things that Hitler did.
As much as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have destroyed this country and should never regain power ever again in this country, I can list good things that they have both did while in power. Everything is not black and white. Listing some of Hitler’s political accomplishments does not mean that is support for Hitler nor does it diminish the fact he was a war criminal who committed genocide.
That’s just typical Trump: no filter.
Almost every dictator in history did some good things (Trump himself can lay claim to the same). But what possessed him to feel the need to point it out?
@Gerard: and its exactly his lack of filter makes him totally unsuitable as a president along with the nepotism, self interest and narcissism. Fantastically qualified for the job so he was
I think it’s always important to acknowledge that the face of true evil isn’t a comic book villain twirling their moustache and cackling manically. They’re manipulative and deceptive and will usually begin by doing great things in order to achieve great power.
@Rochelle: I don’t know, Jeff Bezos is starting to look and act like Lex luther.
Trump said something bizarre, big whup.
Surprised media never said that Tr.ump is actually a reptiloid alien lizard from the dark side of the moon. Pretty sure that majority would believe in it.
@Ilarion Cibu: well 2 people love you.
@Ilarion Cibu: They don’t need to say any of that. Just reporting on the reality of trump is mad enough
Trump 2024.
@Raymond Barry: Let it go.
@Raymond Barry: he lost, get over it
Thick as 2 short planks
One crappy newspaper reporter reports on quote made by another crappy newspaper reporter who supposedly heard Trump say something when said crappy reporter was chief of staff. Wow. And The Journal jumps on the bandwagon because, guess what, most of you are crappy journalists too. If this is the kind of news you want to sling just go out of business already.
@Jackass World: silent in here.
@Jackass World: Do you do parties?
Great just what the world needs another book saying orange man said/did silly things. Stop the press!
If dum! was bankable then this ex-president would truly be a billionaire
They all do good things to get into power. Then power sends them crazy and other people suffer.
“Trump’s then chief of staff John Kelly was reportedly “stunned” by the remark…”
I’ll bet he wasn’t.
Of course Trump’s lineage is German and knowing quite a few myself they can tend to be a very self-assured, blunt and quite abrasive people so as they say, ‘he didn’t take it from the ground’.
This is such bull. Trump’s ignorance and European history briefing led him to repeat some facts about Hitler’s successful domestic policies. There’s a lot to despise about Herr Trump but this should slide.
@Noel_Random: Trump kept a copy of Mein Kampf beside his bed. It was one of the only books he’s read. He’s always wanted to be the next Hitler and the Republican Party paved the way. Don’t be so naive.
He would know his family are from German
@Martin Sinnott: In ‘The Art Of The Deal’ Trump claimed his family were of Swedish descent. Trump claimed his father (Fred Trump – that’s his genuine middle name) was born in Germany. His father was born in New York. With Trump it’s a mixture of deliberate lies with some pay-off for him and laziness.
@David A. Murray: I can’t include Fred’s middle name (Toxic filter kicks in). Look it up. That really is his middle name!
Well he did kill hitler to be fair
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