For years, electoral rivals, the Democratic Party as a whole, columnists, and countless analysts worldwide have claimed that Trump is the greatest threat to democracy and the worst president in U.S. history. The opinion of a large part of world leaders, who have dealt with him in bilateral meetings or major summits, is the same. But the most damning criticisms come from those who worked with him. Of the 42 people in his administrations, barely half publicly support him for reelection. And the military personnel who were closest, as well as national security experts, consider him a danger or, outright, "a fascist."
Beyond his style, his social media messages, or hyperboles, they point to his specific threats and the revolutionary factor that the Supreme Court's July decision represented, establishing a doctrine with a ruling that considers the occupant of the White House immune by default in everything he does, as long as they are official acts and not personal. Everything he does, even hypothetically eliminating his rivals, according to dissenting progressive judges.
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly stated that he will carry out the largest deportation of immigrants ever seen. He has once again flirted with the idea of shutting down media outlets he dislikes. He has raised the possibility of using the military against "the internal enemy," without specifying exactly who it consists of. And he has stated that his political rivals could be prosecuted if he returns to power. "When I win, those who cheated will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, which will include long prison sentences so that this perversion of justice does not happen again," he wrote on his social media. This refers to "lawyers, political agents, donors, illegal voters, and corrupt election officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought, captured, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never before seen in our country," he added.
Since 2022, when he began preparing for the presidential campaign, Trump has issued over 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison, or otherwise punish his alleged opponents, according to NPR calculations; the U.S. public radio. Last month, he said Vice President Kamala Harris "should be impeached and prosecuted." "I will appoint a true special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family," he said a few months ago. "Elizabeth Lynne Cheney is guilty of treason," he typed on Truth Social, his social network, about the former Republican congresswoman and daughter of former Vice President George Bush. "Spread it if you want televised military tribunals," he insisted.
And it is precisely the military who are most concerned. Not those closest to the Democratic Party, or those who served with Obama or Biden, but the most conservative ones. General (retired) Mark A. Milley, who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Republican presidency, believes he is a "fascist to the core" and "the most dangerous person to this country," as he told The Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, as published in his latest book, on sale for a few days.
But it's not just him. Another military figure, former Marine General John F. Kelley, the person who served the longest as Trump's chief of staff, says exactly the same. Alarmed by his former boss's words, for whom he also served as National Security Advisor, he explained in interviews with The Atlantic and The New York Times that in his opinion, Trump fits the definition of a fascist, would govern like a dictator if allowed, and does not understand the Constitution or the concept of the rule of law.
In both conversations, the former chief of staff also confirmed that in recent years, Trump has said numerous praising things about Hitler and expressed contempt for veterans and the disabled, referring to those who died on the battlefield as "losers" and "suckers." This was especially painful for his chief of staff, the most powerful person in the White House and in the day-to-day of the government, as his son, a soldier, died in Afghanistan in 2010. And because those derogatory comments were not a slip or something occasional. "Trump didn't seem to understand the idea of sacrifice or service," he explained in the lengthy conversation.
In the conversation with the New York newspaper, and when asked if he thought Trump was a fascist, Kelly read aloud a definition and stated: "If we stick to the fact that it is an authoritarian and ultranationalist far-right ideology and political movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, a centralized autocracy, militarism, forced suppression of opposition, and belief in a natural social hierarchy, yes," said Kelly. "Without a doubt, from my experience, those are the kinds of things he believes would work best in governing the United States."
The former Marine insisted that "without a doubt, the former president belongs to the far right, is an authoritarian, admires dictators, he has said so. Therefore, he undoubtedly fits the general definition of a fascist." The publication of that interview coincided almost exactly in time with a rally by the former president in North Carolina, where once again he spoke about world leaders he seems to be fascinated by. Speaking in Greensboro, in a speech lasting over two hours, he explained to his supporters that Xi Jinping is "a fierce, very smart and brilliant man who rules with an iron fist over 1.4 billion people," that Vladimir Putin is "a tough guy," and that Kim Jong Un, who collects nuclear weapons, "thinks Obama was a real idiot, a real idiot, and I think he's a real idiot too."
"The Mexican Bitch's Funeral Isn't Worth $60,000"
On Tuesday, the director of The Atlantic published a lengthy article about Trump (which was later manipulated and caricatured by the owner of X -formerly Twitter-, a supporter and ally of Trump, Elon Musk), which included Kelly's allegations and began with another damning story related to the military. In 2020, a soldier of Mexican origin was killed by a comrade in a Texas barracks. Trump offered to help pay for the burial expenses out of his pocket to the soldier's family and publicized it in the media. Some time later, in a meeting with his new Secretary of Defense, he remembered that and asked if any bill had been received. When told yes, and the amount, he exploded, "It can't cost $60,000 to bury a damn Mexican!" He turned to then-Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, and gave an order: "Don't pay it!" Later that day, he was still agitated. "Can you believe it?" he said, according to a witness. "Damn people, trying to scam me." The soldier's family never received a dollar from Trump.
The magazine also analyzes Trump's difficult relationship with military values, senior officers, and the pathological hatred, tinged with contempt, he had for John McCain, the Arizona Senator who, before being Barack Obama's rival in the 2008 elections, was a prisoner of war for years in Vietnam. And it recalls the names of many military figures, such as Admiral William McRaven and General Stanley McChrystal, two highly respected special operations leaders, whom he said should return to active duty to face a court-martial for treason.
"Certainly, a big surprise for him was that the generals declared themselves loyal to the Constitution and not to him. If you remember, at the beginning of his administration, he spoke of 'his generals,'" Kelly assures. "I don't know why he thought that, but a big surprise for him was that we, who were former generals and, undoubtedly, people who were still in active service, committed ourselves, loyal to the Constitution, without question, without a second thought."