By Tim Reid
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Donald Trump’s former White House chief of staff said the Republican presidential candidate meets the definition of a fascist and “prefers the dictator approach to government” in a series of interviews published on Tuesday.
With less than two weeks until the Nov. 5 election, John Kelly, a longtime critic of Trump, told The New York Times that the former Republican president has no understanding of the U.S. Constitution or the concept of the rule of law, and warned that he would seek to rule like an authoritarian if he returns to the White House.
Kelly, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general, served as Trump’s White House chief of staff between 2017 and 2019.
Since then the two men’s relationship has soured and both are open about their disdain for each other. Kelly has made critical comments about Trump before in previous interviews.
Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, said in a statement that Kelly “has totally beclowned himself with these debunked stories.”
Trump’s Democratic opponent, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, has seized on comments Trump made during a Fox News event in December when he said that if he won the 2024 election he would be a dictator, but only on “day one”, to close the southern border with Mexico and expand oil drilling.
Harris and fellow Democrats argue that Trump is a threat to U.S. democracy, something Trump denies.
(Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)