Posted on 10/25/2024 11:13:54 AM PDT by Twotone
Accusations from a former Trump chief of staff meant to derail his presidential campaign were defused by a vehement denial from the former chief of staff to Mike Pence.
Retired Marine General John Kelly said that former President Donald Trump had praised Adolf Hitler's military and wished that he had the same. He also said Trump met the definition of a fascist and would govern as a dictator if elected a second time. The media ran wild with the claims in an attempt to damage the Trump presidential campaign.
"He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government," Kelly said.
But according to Nick Ayers, Kelly's accusation is false.
"I’ve avoided commenting on intra-staff leaks or rumors or even lies as it relates to my time at the White House but General Kelly’s comments regarding President Trump are too egregious to ignore," wrote Ayers on social media. "I was with each of them more than most, and his commentary is *patently false.*"
Ayers went on Fox News to directly address the accusations.
"I'm responding to one general who made egregious comments that are simply not true, that are manufactured, if they were true, obviously the American people would have known about it before then," Ayers said. "You all know how the White House was covered, there were no secrets at that White House related to what the president was saying or thinking."
He went on to identify Kelly as a member of the "military-industrial complex" in the segment.
Kelly's accusations were picked up by Vice President Kamala Harris, who cited him in a brief speech on Wednesday.
"Donald Trump said that because he does not want a military that is loyal to the United States Constitution; he wants a military that is loyal to him," Harris said.
The Trump campaign lambasted Harris in a fiery response.
"Kamala Harris is a stone-cold loser who is increasingly desperate because she is flailing, and her campaign is in shambles. That is why she continues to peddle outright lies and falsehoods that are easily disproven," the statement read.
"The fact is that Kamala's dangerous rhetoric is directly to blame for the multiple assassination attempts against President Trump and she continues to stoke the flames of violence all in the name of politics," the statement continued. "She is despicable and her grotesque behavior proves she is wholly unfit for office."
Kelly, who left the Trump administration in 2019, had previously called Trump "dishonest," "pathetic," and the "most flawed person" he had ever met in his life.
Pence will be relegated to the waste bin of history and never mentioned again!
Somebody must have pictures or video of Pence with a little boy.
I watched a documentary on Hitler when he first came into power in 1933. His first five years were getting Germany back on it’s feet. He got people back to work and fed, built up the military, started on the Autobahn and got industry going again. The documentary stated that if Hitler would have died at the end of his first five years, he would have been one of Germany’s greatest statesmen. Today, we are not even allowed to state facts without others condemning us.
Did you read the post or only the awkwardly worded title?
Of course the reason the industry got going again was because he was building up the war machine.
I agree.
Excellent recent comment on our higher level politicized military leadership. This guy is worth following on X.
https://x.com/CynicalPublius/status/1849499982476275921
Cynical Publius
@CynicalPublius
I’ve had a number of people ask me what I think happened that caused our senior military leadership to go from being the most respected institution in America to being a bunch of banana republic narcissistic self-serving politicos.
There are so many ways to answer that, but I think the answer lies in some cultural shifts that have taken place over the past 30 years that made officers think they are woke politicians instead of steely-eyed warriors (and what happened to the senior officers drifted into the senior NCO ranks like an infection).
To wit:
1. The promotion of the concept of “interagency.”
After 9/11, a huge amount of emphasis was placed on better coordination between the DoD and other federal departments like State and the CIA. The idea was simply to produce better coordination across domains. But instead of the State Department becoming more like the DoD, the DoD started thinking like the State Department. Historically (pre-1990s) there was a healthy tension between State and the DoD. Turning our senior officers into wannabe State Department grandees who get invited to Georgetown cocktail parties destroyed that tension and wrecked the warrior ethos of the military. (Although not “high ranking,” Alexander “Chow Thief” Vindman is a stellar example of this phenomenon.)
2. We sent our promising O-5s and O-6s to advanced degree-producing programs at Ivy League universities and made advanced degrees a key promotion criteria.
Think Dave Petraeus. The idea of the “warrior scholar” is nice in the abstract, but in reality what we did was infect our senior leaders with the woke mind virus.
3. The service academies and War Colleges tried to be like Ivy League universities and built a civilian cadre of professors who think and act like a Harvard scholar.
The result is the same as #2, except because the service academies are involved the woke mind virus starts at the very most junior officer levels with cadets at West Point, the Air Force Academy and Annapolis.
How to fix these cultural issues?
-Dramatically cut back on interagency activities except for strict intelligence functions.
-Eliminate advanced degrees as promotion criteria. Stellar service in combat and line units/ships/planes will be the overwhelming consideration for promotion.
-Eliminate all DEI programs of every kind at all levels. Demonstrated adherence to DEI principles will be a “do not promote” criteria.
-Cease all advanced degree-producing programs at civilian universities for line officers (docs, lawyers, chaplains and scientists can still go).
-Fire 100% of the civilian faculty at the service academies and War Colleges.
-Greatly reduce permanent military faculty at the service academies and War Colleges and limit them only to very specialized areas. Rotate accomplished line officers through these schools as instructors.
-Refocus the service academies on disciplines related to warfighting and engineering. Eliminate any and all courses and majors that end in “studies.”
-Completely revamp the curriculums at all War Colleges so there is a laser-focus on strategy at the national and theater levels.
-Mirror all of this in NCO professional development programs.
There is so much more to be done to fix our military, but from a cultural perspective I believe this is a great start.
Where have we heard that before?
Read for comprehension this time.
Project 2025 touches on many of these points, especially in the area of Flag Officers. It recommends we reduce their ranks.
We have far more flag officers today than we did in October 1945.
There are no warrior generals today......war losers, yes....but no warriors.
Napoleon said his best generals died as second lieutenants.
Today, our best generals leave as O-3’s, or at most O-5’s. Even the 0-5’s still have to be somebody’s catamite to jump the flag rank fence.
We are left with bumbling, posturing, entitled, backstabbing, and politicized middle managers wearing funny hats, cheap shoes and shiny polyester suits covered with “try it” patches.
Kelly has entered the Twilight Zone in Dementialand.
Just to be clear-this is more granular about this specific problem than Project 2025 is.
There is indeed a cancer.
Long time avocational student of military history, and yes, I am well aware of that. It is insane.
The summary is, more warfighters, fewer perfumed princes.
I think an all out audit of Kelly’s correspondence, emails, texts, meetings, travel would show Kelly is receiving large amounts of money from Trump Haters somewhere in the world. That’s the only conceivable explanation for him soiling his own reputation in front of 90 million Trumpsters.
IMO, Kelly isn’t demented-he is focused on his own issues, the Deep State issues, and Democrat issues.
He doesn’t give a Rat’s Ass about the interests of the USA.
He is a disgrace to our country, and is an oath-breaker.
100%.
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