October 30, 2024

"[Ex-White House Chief of Staff John] Kelly has always seen the role we shared, that of White House chief of staff, differently than I."

"We both knew we were the only ones in the West Wing whose job it was to tell the president things he didn’t want to hear. But... I saw the role as one that would enable the president to be as successful as possible in fulfilling the agenda that got him elected. Kelly saw the job as that of a self-appointed overseer, charged with protecting the country against a president that those same people had elected...."

Writes Mick Mulvaney, in "I was Trump’s chief of staff — ex-aide’s Hitler claims are deranged" (NY Post).

"Faithful service never implies doing things that are illegal or immoral or in violation of our oaths to the Constitution. But Kelly hasn’t expressed that Trump asked him to do anything like that.... Kelly’s central aim now appears to be establishing a tie between Trump and Hitler, using the former president’s alleged own words to do so. Curiously, absolutely no one else seems to recall comments similar to what Kelly has alleged. Donald Trump certainly never spoke favorably about Adolf Hitler to me.... [M]ost tellingly, Kelly sat quietly for 5½ years, withholding his secrets about Trump’s alleged fascist inclinations, only to reveal them in what appears to be a coordinated media barrage a fortnight before the 2024 election...."

53 comments:

Achilles said...

Trump entered the White House with no friends or connections in DC.

Some people in DC believe they are above the will of the people.

John Kelly is a complete piece of shit. He was recommended by Uniparty Republicans and lied to get the job. Then he proceeded to make sure the people who voted for Trump did not get what they wanted.

It is time to clean DC out.

Aggie said...

I initially held Mulvaney in high esteem for his focused, budget - cutting enthusiasm in the corrupt Pocahantas agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - what a rat's nest. He was pretty effective there, but I thought he became quite politicized when he moved into the White House as COS. I ended up concluding that he was more a product of the Deep State than he was an adversary of it. Now he's standing up for Trump, so I'm thinking he's trying to curry favor.....

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Good for Mick. Everyone who was there called bullshit on Kelly. But Big Media love spreading #fakenews with no evidence. It's their prime business model.

Ampersand said...

The kind of personal and political betrayal we have seen from Kelly could only happen in a context in which Kelly had a great deal to win or lose in this election. I wonder which it was, and what he thinks he is going to win or lose.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Yes but even John Bolton called BS on these fake comments.

Aggie said...

I never trusted John Kelly, and was glad to see him go.

Peachy said...

This goes back to Trump not understanding the importance of multiple point vetting.
Trump needs people he can trust. Considering how many scummy power-obsessed paid-off scum bags are in DC... not easy!
I still think that horrible /not funny (no one laughed) comedian at the rally in NYC - was a plant.
Trump needs to be very careful from now on. He must know that Dem-Soviet-like spies and infiltrators are going to get through.
See Joke Vindman and that fraud who lied about the grabbing the steering wheel. among others.

Achilles said...

It should just be assumed that anyone working in Washington DC for any amount of time in the last 10 years is just scum waiting for an opportunity to suck the life out of the people of this country.

Dave Begley said...

The rank partisanship and plain stupidity of Generals Kely and Milley put the military in a whole new light for me. Trump's comments about how his former generals thought it would take years to defeat ISIS also changed my mine. Some of these generals apparently see their job to be to generate sales for the military-industrial complex. Permanant war is their goal. Same for Liz Cheney. And to think at one time I liked the Cheneys.

Aggie said...

I have an acquaintance that went to West Point and was career Army, ending up as a Lt. Col. He has had nothing good to say about Generals, any US Generals - including Mattis, Kelly, Milley, any of them. In his experience, the politicization of advancement within the ranks affects all of the choices that eventually make it to that rank, and not in a good way. He retired pretty disgusted.

Ice Nine said...

Kelly was too much General and not enough staff.

mccullough said...

How does Kelly make his money?

RideSpaceMountain said...

Ditto.

Readering said...

Is he the guy that on November 7, 2020 wrote a whole article in the WSJ about how Trump would concede defeat gracefully, then resigned abruptly after January 6?

RideSpaceMountain said...

These people have watched way too much West Wing. Life is not supposed to imitate art, especially if you consider what comes out of Hollywood "art".

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

It seems to me that he must've gone in to office and tried to do things like a CEO. New CEOs don't come in and fire everyone, they sit back and see who's working and who isn't and get rid of the people who aren't. This doesn't work in a government system because unlike in a corporation the survivors will actively work against you. I suspect that if he's elected he'll start cleaning house on day one. I've always thought that's what his "dictator for one day" comment was about.

john mosby said...

TR promoted Pershing direct from Captain to one-star, jumping over 3 ranks, because the laws of that time wouldnt let him just promote Black Jack one rank to Major ahead of his peers.

Maybe TRump (that’s not a typo) should do similar.

Also maybe he can activate National Guard officers from red states and put them in key positions.

JSM

Peachy said...

It's awesome how the Hack Soviet D-Party press took Kelly's account as gospel and didn't ask any questions.

Original Mike said...

"The rank partisanship and plain stupidity of Generals Kely and Milley put the military in a whole new light for me."

I came here to post a similar comment.

Whatever happened to the military being an instrument of the civilian government? Put another way; who do these people think they are?

Original Mike said...

Sound like anyone who posts here regularly?

Maynard said...

One does not rise above the rank of Lt Col. unless they are mostly politicians. One does not get to be a General unless they are entirely politicians.

mindnumbrobot said...

If John Kelly were a man of honor and took his oath to the Constitution seriously, he would have resigned as COS if he believed at the time the stuff he is now saying. But he didn't, instead waiting over 3 years and just before an election to leveling his accusations. He has proven himself to be a political hack and disgrace to the uniform he wore.

Yancey Ward said...

Kelly was one of the moles placed in the Trump Administration by his enemies. I am guessing that Kelly is the source of many of the stories about the Trump Administration that were printed in the NYTimes and WaPo.

Trump was far too naive when choosing his appointments the first time around and I think it was because his only experience was in vetting people for competence at a job and not being thieves looking for a score. He didn't realize that political appointments involve the additional dimension of political backstabbing and power plays. I don't know if he will get a second chance to do better next week but he does need to do better if he gets that chance.

Money Manger said...

So I'm a gamer, and my buds and I are starting on a long WW II battle game.

And we are picking sides, and one bud says "I want the Nazi generals... they usually win the early battles...I want all my generals to be Nazi generals".

Context always matters.

Bob Boyd said...

Kelly wasn't protecting the country. He was protecting The Blob.

donald said...

John kelly is involved in child trafficking. Seriously, he is a principal in a company that builds basically barracks and warehouses them there. Till they’re sold of course. Look it up. I can’t post links, but I’ll go find it and point y’all to it.

Peachy said...

Time to end the corrupt Soviet mole system.

Bob Boyd said...

Kelly was protecting The Blob and its agenda from the American people.

donald said...

Look up John Kelly joins Children’s shelter organization.

RCOCEAN II said...

General milly vanilli was even worse than Kelly. But kelly's ego and lack of intergrity are amazing. Like the DoD Secretary Esper, Kelly thought his judgement superceded the Commander-in-Chief's and like Esper he felt he had a right to hide things from trump, and sabotage him if needed.

Both MacArthur and Ike were Chiefs of staff. Big Mac under Hoover and FDR and Ike under truman. Both felt their job was to argue with the POTUS when they felt he was wrong, but once the POTUS decided something, they saluted and did their damndest to carry it out.

Kelly is a pygmy compared to them. And a weaselly liar to boot.

mikee said...

Why in the hell is it ONLY the job of Chief of Staff to disagree with the President? He ain't a king, has no divine right to rule, and should have everyone who works for him speaking out when he's wrong. God knows every president since Eisenhower at least has needed more people saying "No, that would be stupid/immoral/damaging/unconstitutional/etc." when they had ideas from how to fight the Soviet empire (maybe not in SE Asia??) to accepting a deficit of tens of trillions.

Krumhorn said...

As a former Marine Corps officer, I can spot a shitbird when I see one.

- Krumhorn

ga6 said...

For those interested search for Louisiana War game or use the link below. In 1940-41 George Marshall ordered a series of war games which eventually used more than 3400 square miles and 400000 troops. He did this to weed out incompetents in command staff and to find competent command staff hidden in the lower ranks.
"It is now well-known American military lore that in his desk drawer in Washington, Marshall kept “a little black book” (one he once waved at a reporter, just to prove it existed) in which he listed those officers he believed would lead the nation in battle against the Axis."

https://www.historynet.com/louisiana-maneuvers-1940-41/

Kai Akker said...

It isn't election propaganda. This is what Kelly is being used for:

"For instance, last week the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, quoted former Trump administration officials claiming that the Republican candidate is contemptuous of America’s armed forces and, according to Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, wishes he could command the same respect that Hitler commanded from his general officers.
...
"The purpose of the Hitler narrative is not to alter the electoral preferences of left-wing media audiences already solidly in the anti-Trump column, but rather to justify taking extreme measures against the Republican candidate and the America First movement and ensure that the bulk of the military sides with the anti-Trump plot. Thus, it is best understood in the context of recent accounts promising, or urging, violence after the November vote."

Widespread post-election violence will force Trump to use the Insurrection Act and then our squishy generals will refuse to go along with him. It sounds farfetched but it came out of wargames run by former Pentagon official Rosa Brooks and Barton Gellman last spring at NYU.

Get at least some of the top military to refuse Trump orders as he is the Hitler, whereas the Democrats are the voice of civil society and democracy.

Rep. Jamie Raskin has also said they could use Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to disqualify Trump. Raskin was saying as late as this summer that the Democrats would never allow Trump to take the office of President.

Some of the scenarios sound unlikely but Nancy D'Alesandro d'Medici is creative. The main tool in all these plans is major violence after a Trump election.

I am not sure that he can overcome all the steal efforts plus whatever ballots are flushed out of the 8-10 million illegals the Democrats have distributed around the county. But I don't think the Democrats will take losing, in any way, shape or form. And I am sure they have plans for that possibility.

https://tomklingenstein.com/is-the-left-preparing-for-war-if-trump-wins/

Kai Akker said...

Former journalist Barton Gellman, now some kind of general "strategist"

Iman said...

Will Lt. Col. Bearclaw Vindman please come to the courtesy phone.

Iman said...

Didn’t 0bama go through the officer roster and cull all but the ass-kissers?

David53 said...

I second that and it's not new. My Dad was a Marine aviator for 21 years and retired as a Major in 1965 because they wouldn't promote him. He stuck up for his enlisted folks one too many times.

Lance said...

@ga6

Marshall was a genius at personnel. Except for Fredendall. He totally missed it on Fredendall. But he did replace the guy straightaway, so there's that.

We could use a man like George C. Marshall again.

BobJustBob said...

Pence was another one...he wasn't the VP...he was Trumps handler for the Deep State. He was there to report back to whoever is anything Trump said or do.

Wa St Blogger said...

In thinking about the Althouse propensity to have themes for a day, that I was looking at this issue from the wrong perspective. Trump political partners (however they come into his administration) are both allies and traitors but he can't tell which until he puts them oh his team.

Heartless Aztec said...

Hitler, Hitler, HITLER!

TaeJohnDo said...

I had a relative make Brigadier General in the 80's when I was a lowly Captain. I saw her a year later and was talking to her, and I mentioned Colin Powell in a favorable manner. She looked at me hard and said, "Johnny, Colin Powell IS NOT the man you think he is. He is not to be trusted. That's all I shall say on the subject." I was stationed at a Major Command HQ at that time - rare then to be a Captain in the environment I was in, and largely ignored by the power's that be. There was a promotion cycle for Major to Lt Col. Typically, the breakdown would run roughly 20% high performers get promoted, 70-75% average get promoted and then 5-10% get passed over. Some were obvious slugs but some you thought should have made it, but, that's how it goes. In this cycle, it was several high performers who got passed over, and some real slugs who made it. I overheard two Full Birds talking - "I see you got Maj. Slug promoted." "Yes, he builds all my Harvard Graphic's slides. That's all he's good for, but you know...I need those slides to look good at the morning brief..." That is when I knew I had to get out of the military.

BG said...

It sounds like he may be doing things differently this time. (If the election isn't stolen from him again.) Trump transition team to swamp rats looking to come back - go pound sand

Gusty Winds said...

Scott Adams basically said yesterday on X, if you can get 58 former intelligence officials to lie about the Hunter Biden laptop, 5 Generals is nothing.

Joe Bar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe Bar said...

Just to be clear that LTC was NOT me. I knew at least one GO who was a stand-up guy. He didn't get very far, though.

Hassayamper said...

Hillary Clinton was famed for meddling with senior officer promotions when her husband was president, and of course Obama purged the military of every patriot he could identify. There are a whole lot of retired colonels and lieutenant colonels out there who would have less than zero loyalty to the Democratic Party and might be willing to accept reactivation of their commissions.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

H.R. McMasters in Uncommon Knowledge talks about the problem Kelly.

Achilles said...

Out of all the people the average soldier hates in Washington DC, it is the Flag officers that "work" in the Pentagon that are hated the most.

Josephbleau said...

Sprezz, Please, take care of yourself, now, man.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

👆🏽 LINK

JAORE said...

"If John Kelly were a man of honor and took his oath to the Constitution seriously, he would have resigned as COS if he believed at the time the stuff he is now saying."
Just what I've been saying. He violated his oath to defend the Constitution. You know, the one that declares the POTUS the Commander-in-Chief. It's disgusting to hear MSM leap into can-not-criticize-this-warrior-hero after years of NOT supporting our military.