(The Hill) — The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is deploying a mobile billboard ahead of former President Donald Trump’s rally in Las Vegas on Thursday, hitting him over his past reported praise of Adolf Hitler’s generals.
The billboard features the headline from The Atlantic, which reported that Trump said, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.” The Trump campaign has vehemently denied Trump ever made the remarks, calling the report “absolutely false.”
In a statement to The Hill, DNC Chair Jaime Harrison called Trump “a danger to democracy.”
“Trump is increasingly unstable, unhinged and out for unchecked power through his Project 2025 agenda. Trump already tried to overthrow the will of Nevada once and there’s no doubt he’ll try to do it again,” Harrison said.
During an interview with The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, Trump’s former chief of staff, Ret. Gen. John Kelly affirmed reporting from Peter Baker and Susan Glasser’s book, “The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021,” which quoted Trump asking Kelly, his chief of staff at the time, “Why can’t you be like the German generals?”
Kelly noted to Trump that the German generals “tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off,” according to Goldberg’s account of Baker and Glasser’s reporting.
“No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,” Trump reportedly said.
Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, have hammered Trump over the reported comments. Harris referred to the former president as “increasingly unhinged” during public remarks from her residence in Washington.
“It is clear from John Kelly’s words that Donald Trump is someone — who I quote — certainly falls in ‘the general definition of fascist.’ Who has in fact vowed to be a dictator on day one and vowed to use the military as his personal militia to carry out his personal and political vendettas,” Harris said.
The Trump campaign has pushed back on Kelly’s remarks, labeling them as “debunked stories.”
“John Kelly has totally beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated because he failed to serve his President well while working as Chief of Staff and currently suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Steven Cheung said in a statement.
Trump also pushed back on Kelly himself, calling him a lowlife in a post on Truth Social.
“Even though I shouldn’t be wasting my time with him, I always feel it’s necessary to hit back in pursuit of THE TRUTH,” Trump continued. “John Kelly is a LOWLIFE, and a bad General, whose advice in the White House I no longer sought, and told him to MOVE ON!”