Mr Trump is said to have allegedly made these remarks to his then-chief of staff John Kelly in 2018, during his trip to Europe to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.
When, John Kelly, a retired marine corps general was telling the former president “which countries were on which side during the war, Trump is said to have responded that Hitler did a lot of good things.
John Kelly was reportedly “stunned” by the remark.
The exchange is recounted in the upcoming book, “Frankly, We Did Win This Election,” by Michael Bender of The Wall Street Journal.
According to the book, which will be published next week, Kelly had “reminded the president which countries were on which side during the conflict” and “connected the dots from the first world war to the second world war and all of Hitler’s atrocities.”
“Kelly pushed back again,” Bender is quoted as writing, “and argued that the German people would have been better off poor than subjected to the Nazi genocide.”
Kelly told Trump that even if his claim about the German economy under the Nazis were true, “you cannot ever say anything supportive of Adolf Hitler. You just can’t.”
Bender has interviewed Trump since he lost the November 2020 election and the former president has denied making the remark about Hitler.
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