Donald Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff has warned that the Republican presidential nominee is a fascist, claiming that while in office, Trump said Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “did some good things.” John Kelly, the retired Marine general who served in Trump’s White House from 2017 to 2019, made the statements in interviews published Tuesday by the New York Times and the Atlantic. They add to previous warnings from former top Trump officials as the election approaches its final two weeks.

Kelly has long been critical of Trump, accusing him of calling troops who died in combat “suckers” and “losers.” His fresh warnings came as Trump seeks a second term, promising to greatly increase his use of the military at home and implying that he might use force to pursue Americans he considers “enemies from within.” “He said more than once, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,'” Kelly told the New York Times. Kelly claimed he normally shuts off the argument by noting “nothing [Hitler] did, you could argue, was good,” but Trump will occasionally bring it up again.

Kelly told the Atlantic that when Trump mentioned the need for “German generals,” he asked if he meant “Bismarck’s generals,” alluding to Otto von Bismarck, the chancellor who managed Germany’s unification. “Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals,” Kelly remembered questioning Trump. The previous president replied, “Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.” Advertisement Trump’s campaign refuted the claims on Tuesday, with spokesman Steven Cheung saying Kelly had “beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated.”

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