Claim:
Former US President Donald Trump said Adolf Hitler “did some good things”.
Evaluation:
Context:
The quote comes from an anecdote told by General John Kelly, one of Trump’s chiefs of staff, but the authenticity of the anecdote has been disputed by Trump’s spokespeople on more than one occasion. Without further confirmation from witnesses or audio or video recordings, we cannot confirm whether Trump actually made such a remark.
In 2024, several viral posts claimed that former US President Donald Trump praised Adolf Hitler, including a pro-Joe Biden Account which cited Trump’s former chief of staff as the source of this information.
(X-User @BidenHQ)
The posts also alternated between claiming that Trump said, “Hitler did a lot of great things, I imagine myself to be a person like him,” or simply, “Hitler did some good things.”
(X-User @insiderfilms1)
(X-user @GlobalEyeNews)
Although Trump, based on all the sources we could find, did not say that Hitler did “great things” or “I imagine myself to be like him,” a former aide claimed secondhand that Trump said Hitler did “some good things.” However, we have no firsthand confirmation from other witnesses or audio or video footage. Therefore, we rate this claim as “unproven.”
The original, second-hand source of this claim was Trump’s second chief of staff, General John Kelly, who told the anecdote to CNN correspondent Jim Sciutto for his book “The Return of Great Powers,” which was published in March 2024.
Kelly and other former senior advisers told Sciutto that Trump praised despots in private and on the campaign trail. According to Kelly:
He said, “Well, but Hitler did some good things.” I said, “Well, what?” And he said, “Well, (Hitler) rebuilt the economy.” But what did he do with that rebuilt economy? He turned it against his own people and against the world. And I said, “Sir, you can never say anything good about that guy. Nothing.” I mean, Mussolini was a great guy by comparison.
Kelly added that Trump regretted that Hitler managed to retain the loyalty of his senior aides while Trump could not. “He asked about loyalty issues and how it was when I pointed out to him that the German generals as a group were not loyal to him and actually tried to assassinate him a couple of times and that he didn’t know that,” Kelly said. “When he brought us generals in, he really believed that we would be loyal – that we would do whatever he asked of us.”
When we asked Steven Cheung, spokesman for Trump’s 2024 campaign, about Kelly’s claims, Cheung did not elaborate on the details but was disparaging of Kelly:
John Kelly is a loser trying to sell a book that belongs either in the bargain bin in the fiction section of a bookstore or repurposed as toilet paper.
He has completely disgraced himself and is suffering from a severe case of Trump Syndrome. He needs to seek professional help because his hatred is consuming his empty and miserable life.
Previously, the claim that Trump praised Hitler surfaced in a 2021 story. Kelly told the anecdote to journalist Michael Bender for his book “Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost.” According to Bender, Kelly said Trump praised Hitler during a 2018 conversation during a trip to Paris to mark the armistice in World War I.
At the time, Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington denied that the conversation ever took place. “That is completely false. President Trump never said that. These are fabricated hoaxes, probably from a general who was incompetent and was fired,” she said.
Trump has expressed his admiration for autocrats in the past. John Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security adviser, told Sciutto: “He sees himself as a big man. He likes to negotiate with other big men, and big men like Erdogan in Turkey can throw people in jail without asking anyone’s permission. He kind of likes that.”
In early March 2024, Trump met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whom conservative populists praise for his restrictions on immigration and LGBTQ+ rights. During his visit to the US, Orbán also spoke at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. In footage shared by Orbán, Trump could be heard praising the autocrat and referring to him as “the boss”.
Sources:
Sciutto, Jim. “Former advisers sound alarm as Trump praises despots in private and on the campaign trail.” CNN, March 11, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/11/politics/trump-despots-advisers-sound-alarm/index.html. Accessed March 15, 2024.
“Trump meets with Hungarian President Viktor Orbán, continuing his support for autocrats.” AP News, March 8, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/trump-orban-hungary-conservatives-autocrats-biden-97d6998f747d3543f2f1df069b0f9165. Accessed March 15, 2024.
Valentine, Catherine, and Chandelis Duster. “Trump praised Hitler for doing ‘lots of good things,’ new book claims | CNN Politics.” CNN, July 7, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/07/politics/donald-trump-adolf-hitler-book-claims/index.html. Accessed March 15, 2024.
