Heeding the Generals’ Warnings
Terry H. Schwadron
Oct. 24, 2024
The most important aspect of hearing the insistent voice of John F. Kelly, retired Marine general and chief of staff to Donald Trump, warning that his former boss is a fascist who wants to operate lawlessly as a dictator is how we react as a voting public.
Much has been made about the now-substantial parade of former flag military officers who have emerged lately to say that Trump is unfit for the presidency. Indeed, speaking out about domestic political matters breaks tradition.
But the very fact that they see the dangers for America’s values and national security in a second Trump presidency is much more a challenge to voters not to Trump, whose spokesmen blithely dismiss the criticism by saying Kelly has “beclowned” himself.
The voices of former generals and admirals have been slow to emerge and are coming out late in the campaign as Trump talks about using the military to arrest and prosecute political enemies. Gen. Mark Milley, former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, former Defense Secretary James Mattis, retired flag officers Stanley McCrystal, James Stavridis, William McRaven all are among voices warning about Trump.
In interviews and recordings being repeated on television, Kelly, perhaps the most respected of retired generals who worked for Trump, said that Trump “met definition of a fascist, would govern like a dictator if allowed, and had no understanding of the Constitution or the concept of rule of law,” according to The New York Times transcripts.
Kelly confirmed previous reports that Trump repeatedly praised Adolph Hitler, had expressed contempt for disabled veterans and had characterized those who died on the battlefield for the United States as “losers” and “suckers” as first reported in 2020 by The Atlantic magazine and recapped this week in an article about how Trump wanted generals loyal to him alone, like Hitler had. Trump was unaware that Hitler’s generals tried to kill him.
What Kelly Said
If you have not caught up with Kelly’s remarks, here is a sampling from The Times:
“Well, looking at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy,” he said. “So certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America,” Kelly said.
Trump “certainly prefers the dictator approach to government,” Kelly said, adding that he “never accepted the fact that he wasn’t the most powerful man in the world — and by power, I mean an ability to do anything he wanted, anytime he wanted,” Kelly said.
Kelly said that Trump was repeatedly told why he should not use the U.S. military against Americans and the limits on his authority to do so. Trump nevertheless continued while in office to push the issue and claim that he did have the authority to take such actions, Mr. Kelly said.
While he would not endorse Kamala Harris, Kelly’s warning was clear.
Now What?
With the presidential contest apparently growing razor-thin in its waning days, the issue at hand is not Kelly’s opinion or that of other military minds. It is about the values that American voters think matter.
Since 2020, the prospect of Trump’s return to the White House has spawned endless discussion about an election reflecting the need to preserve democracy, recognizing that elections are fair and free and maintaining peaceful transition of power rather than the continuing attempts to overturn results in partisan favor.
Since Trump was in the White House, the national security issues that start with abandoning NATO allies and threatening friendly nations with trade wars have created a string of concerns that Trump brushes aside in favor of a storyline that features himself as a religious-tinged savior. Trump has promised in dozens of promises on the campaign trail and through documents like Project 2025 to undercut government as we know it, and to pit his personal status as paramount in a system supposedly dependent on laws, checks and balances.
With a Supreme Court decision in hand that basically immunizes any presidential act in office, there are serious concerns about how a Trump who tells us that he wants to shut down critics, whether political, journalistic or citizen-led, and use the military to do so as well as to round up undocumented families for deportation.
The question is no longer what terms to use to describe Trump, but about what values we as American voters believe in.
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