CNN
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For Donald Trump, Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban is “great,” Chinese leader Xi Jinping is “excellent,” North Korea's Kim Jong Un is “an okay guy,” and, most worryingly, Adolf Hitler. “He did a good thing,” multiple former senior advisers told CNN.
Retired General John Kelly, who served as President Trump's chief of staff, said, “He thought President Putin was an okay person, Chairman Kim was an okay person, and he thought we had cornered North Korea.'' ” he said. “To him, it was like we were provoking them. “If it wasn't for NATO, Putin wouldn't be doing this.”
Trump's lavish praise for Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán when he hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, just days after clinching the Republican nomination on Super Tuesday, showed he was doubling down on his worldview. ing.
From Penguin Random House
“The Return of the Great Power” by CNN's Jim Sciutto.
“There is no better, smarter, better leader than Viktor Orban,” Trump said, adding, “He is a boss, a great leader, a great leader.” He is respected not only in Europe but all over the world. ”
The former president's admiration for dictators has previously been reported, but in comments Trump made to me about my new book, The Return of the Great Powers, released on Tuesday, he said that he was not impressed by Kelly and the Trump administration. Others who have served are offering new insight into why they warn. A person who consistently praises autocratic leaders who are contrary to American interests is unfit to lead the country in the coming great power conflict, they told me, because his admiration for these people stems from them. He said that he believes that it is because he is jealous of the power of the people.
“He considers himself a great man,” said John Bolton, who served as national security adviser in the Trump administration. “He likes to make deals with other big guys, and big guys like Erdogan in Turkey can put people in jail and don't have to get anyone's permission. He likes that kind of thing.”
“He's not a tough guy, in fact, quite the opposite,” Kelly said. “But that's how he envisions himself.”
President Trump is said to have reserved some of his most unpleasant praise for Hitler, who led Nazi Germany during World War II.
“He said, 'Well, but Hitler did a good thing.' I said, 'So what?' And he said, “Well, [Hitler] Rebuilt the economy. ” But what did he do with that rebuilt economy? He turned it against his people and the world. And I said, 'Sir, you can never say anything good about that guy.' There was nothing,” Kelly said. “So compared to that, Mussolini was a great man.”
“That said, it's pretty hard to believe that he overlooked the Holocaust, and it's pretty hard to understand how he could have overlooked the 400,000 American soldiers killed on the European front,” Kelly told me. Ta. “But again, I think it’s a tough guy thing.”
Kelly said Trump's admiration for Hitler was about more than the German leader's economic policies. President Trump also expressed admiration for Hitler's control over Nazi officials. President Trump lamented that while Hitler maintained the “loyalty” of his senior staff, as Kelly said, Trump himself often did not.
“He talked about the issue of loyalty, and when I pointed out to him that the German generals were not loyal to him as a group and had actually tried to assassinate him on several occasions. I asked him how he tried to assassinate him, and he didn't know that,'' Kelly recalled. “When he brought us the general, he truly believed that we would be loyal and that he would do whatever he wanted,” Kelly told me.
When asked to respond to the allegations from former Trump administration officials, Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Chan did not comment on what they told me, but said, “John Kerry. and John Bolton are completely misguided and suffering from serious illness.” Trump Derangement Syndrome. They need to seek professional help because their empty lives are consumed by hatred. ”
In 2021, President Trump's press secretary denied allegations that the former president praised Hitler.
Trump's former advisers say he has been the most consistent and lavish admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Bolton recalled President Trump's comments at the 2018 NATO summit. After sometimes tense talks with NATO leaders, President Trump said his meeting with President Putin, the leader of America's great power foe, “might be the easiest of them all.” Stated. Who would think? ”
“He told reporters as he boarded the helicopter, 'I think the easiest meeting might be with President Vladimir Putin.' Who would have thought that?” Bolton recalled. “There's an answer to that question. Only one person. You. You're the only one who thinks so. I know what the shrinks think of that, but I think it was, 'I'm the big guy.' . They're big guys. I wish I could act like them. ”
“My theory as to why he likes dictators so much is that that's who he is,” Kelly said. “Every incoming president is shocked at how little power they actually have until they go to Congress, and that's a good thing. But in his case, he was shocked to find out that he did not have autocratic authority to send in the U.S. military or move funds within the budget. , and he saw the North Korean weirdo as someone similar to him in that he was a tough guy.”
Korean Central News Agency/Reuters
On June 30, 2019, then-President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pose at the Military Demarcation Line separating North and South Korea in Panmunjom, South Korea.
“Mr. Trump believed in his charisma and the power of diplomacy,” said Matthew, the vice president's national security adviser who was deeply involved in Trump's meetings with North Korean leader Kim and Chinese President Xi. Pottinger recalls. “He believed that almost unrestrictedly. That was true for Kim as much as it was for Xi, but it was also true for allies.”
Trump continued to praise authoritarians in the 2024 presidential election.
At a town hall hosted by Fox News in July 2023, President Trump said, “Think about President Xi. He's a central figure, a brilliant person.” When I say he's great, everyone says, “Oh, that's terrible.” With an iron fist he controls 1.4 billion people. Smart, intelligent, and everything is perfect. There's no one like him in Hollywood. ”
In an interview with Fox that same month, Trump lavished praise on Putin, saying Putin was smarter than President Joe Biden. “These are smart people, including Mr. Macron of France. You could go through the whole list of people, including President Putin…These people are sharp, tough and just generally violent,” Trump said. “They're ferocious and at the top of their game. We have a guy who has no idea what's going on. This is the most dangerous time in our nation's history.”
Anadolu/Anadolu/Getty Images
On June 28, 2019, then-President Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan.
Mr. Trump's affinity for authoritarians has become a critical issue for the United States as the 2024 election approaches. Some of his former advisers believe that in a second term, he will bring about fundamental changes about the United States and its role in the world, including withdrawing the United States from NATO and other It also includes the possibility of reducing involvement in defense. alliance.
“NATO would be really at risk,” Bolton told me. “I think he's going to try to get out.”
Many Trump administration veterans have issued similar warnings for Ukraine as it fights Russian aggression. “U.S. aid to Ukraine will end,” said a senior U.S. official who served in the Trump and Biden administrations.
“The point is, he didn't think NATO made any sense at all,” Kerry said. “He was also completely opposed to having troops in Korea as a deterrent, or in Japan as a deterrent.''
