LAS VEGAS — Former President Donald Trump on Thursday denied ever saying positive things about Hitler during his time in office, including that he needed “the kind of generals that Hitler had.”
“I never said that,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question about an article this week in The Atlantic.
“I would never say that,” he added, directly denying the magazine’s reporting.
Trump went on to criticize the article’s author and the publication, calling it “a failing magazine.”
NBC News has reached out to The Atlantic for comment.
The magazine reported on Tuesday that Trump said during a private conversation while in office that he needed generals like Adolf Hitler’s. “People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders,” he said, The Atlantic reported, citing two people who heard him make the remark.
During Hitler’s rule over Nazi Germany, about six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. There were about 45 million civilians deaths worldwide during World War II, according to the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, though estimates vary.
The Atlantic also reported that when Trump brought up “German generals” to John Kelly, his then-chief of staff, Kelly asked if he meant “Bismarck’s generals,” referring to the first German chancellor.
“I mean, I knew he didn’t know who Bismarck was, or about the Franco-Prussian War. I said, ‘Do you mean the kaiser’s generals? Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals? And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals,’” The Atlantic reported Kelly as saying.
Kelly also told The New York Times in a series of recents interviews published online this week that Trump told him “Hitler did some good things.”
Trump on Thursday denied that he made that comment as well.
“Never said it,” Trump told reporters.
The Harris campaign released a new advertisement Thursday night highlighting Kelly’s comments about his former boss.
Jillian Frankel reported from Las Vegas, Alex Tabet reported from Phoenix and Megan Lebowitz reported from Washington, D.C.
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