Late last year, The Washington Post reported that Donald Trump had compiled a sort of enemies list in the hopes that the Justice Department would investigate targets if voters decided to re-elect him. The list was by no means short, but one name stood out: former White House chief of staff John Kelly.
In other words, the former president seeking a return to the Oval Office wants to use the power of the federal government to go after his one-time right-hand man, Trump, who was once his handpicked secretary of homeland security and is a retired Marine general.
But Republican Donald Trump appears unwilling to wait until 2025 to verbally attack Kelly. At his first post-debate rally last weekend, Trump told supporters: “I’m going to be the first to say anything about this. I …
“There are a lot of TV generals, but they’re no good. … Well, the stupidest of them all is General Kelly. He was lost in the White House. That guy didn’t know what the hell was going on. He was kind of lost, and we called him a ‘lost soul.'”
The crowd responded predictably with booing.
This is not the first time. Last October, the former president took to social media platforms to call his former chief of staff “by far the dumbest man in my military.” He added that Kelly “was not capable of doing a good job and the burden was too great for him. I couldn’t stand him so I fired him like a ‘dog’. I severely reprimanded him because he had no heart or respect for people.”
In a subsequent letter, Trump continued, calling Kelly a “despicable human being with a very small brain and a very big mouth.”
But why is the Republican nominee still referring to the retired general, unprompted, may have something to do with Trump’s apparent preoccupation with allegations that he has belittled American military personnel as “stupid losers” (a point that also came up in last week’s debate), and the fact that it was Kelly who admitted that Trump really did use the foul language.
In fact, Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff confirmed the story in public comments to CNN last year.
“What else can I add beyond what has already been said,” Kerry said in October 2023. Referring to his former boss, Kerry added: “Someone who thinks that everyone who has served in uniform and been shot down or seriously injured in combat or tortured for years as a POW is a ‘stupid guy’ because ‘it didn’t benefit them.’ Someone who didn’t want to appear before amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good.’ Someone who openly disparaged Gold Star families — all Gold Star families — on television during the 2016 election campaign, ranting that our most important heroes who gave their lives defending America were ‘losers’ and would never visit their graves in France.”
“Someone who is dishonest about protecting the life of the unborn, or standing for women, or minorities, or evangelical Christians, or Jews, or working men and women,” Kelly continued. “Someone who has no idea what America stands for or what America is all about. Someone who blithely suggests that someone would act on the fact that a selfless soldier who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason. Someone who praises dictators and brutal autocrats. Someone who has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution and the rule of law.
“There’s nothing more to say,” Kelly concluded. “God help me.”
Kelly also accused Trump of “poisoning” people’s minds, “having serious character problems” and “not being a real man”.
Additionally, Kelly told The New York Times in 2022 that while in office, Trump had instructed his chief of staff to use the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice to target perceived critics and political opponents.
The Times report went on to say that “Mr. Kelly said he made it clear to Mr. Trump that his request raised serious legal and ethical questions” – something the then-president made “regularly” in any event.
Trump continues to fight back, but the fact that he’s openly at odds with his own former secretary of homeland security and chief of staff will likely be a bigger issue in the 2024 campaign.
