John Kelly delivered a scathing rebuke of his onetime boss, former President Donald Trump, and corroborated several damning accounts alleging jarring disregard toward service members.
The former White House chief of staff confirmed to CNN a 2020 Atlantic story claiming Trump was bewildered by service members who died in war, during a 2017 Memorial Day stop at Arlington National Cemetery.
“I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” Trump purportedly told Kelly at the time.
In another 2017 incident, Trump allegedly insisted that no wounded veterans get the spotlight in a large military parade he was attempting to have planned.
“Those are the heroes,” Kelly replied, according to his book, “The Divider: Trump in the White House.”
“In our society, there’s only one group of people who are more heroic than they are – and they are buried over in Arlington.”
“I don’t want them,” Trump allegedly shot back. “It doesn’t look good for me.”
That episode mirrored a similar account in the recent profile from The Atlantic recounting Trump’s anger at having a wounded Army Captain sing for the chairman.
Kelly also confirmed a 2018 anecdote alleging Trump was sour about visiting the graves of soldiers at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France.
“Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers,” Trump allegedly said.
Kelly, a retired Marine Corps General who lost his then-29-year-old son to a land mine in Afghanistan back in 2010, admonished Trump’s behavior.
“What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly told CNN. “A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.”
Kelly was Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, a role he publicly described as the “hardest job I’ve ever had.”
A rambunctious, problem child, Trump’s parents had shipped him off to New York Military Academy in the 1960s, to instill some military discipline in him, according to some of his biographers.
Trump later skirted the military draft to the Vietnam War on at least five occasions, including for purported bone spurs on his feet. Kelly served enlisted in the Marines during that time.
Decades later, Trump jokingly likened his personal Vietnam to avoiding sexually transmitted diseases during his escapades with various women. He also stressed that he did not agree with the conflict.
“Well, I was never a fan of that war, I’ll be honest with you. I thought it was a terrible war. I thought it was very far away. Nobody ever, you know you’re talking about Vietnam, and at that time, nobody had ever heard of the country,” Trump previously told “Good Morning Britain.”
In addition to Kelly confirming some of the stunning anecdotes against his old boss Trump has had some public run-ins with military families.
For example, in 2015, Trump jabbed at the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), questioning the Republican statesman’s status as a war hero.
“I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said at the time.
Recently, Trump accused retired Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley of treason, which he noted used to be punishable by death.
Kelly further tore into Trump for being untruthful to the public.
“A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women,” Kelly said in a statement.
Trump has publicly insisted that veterans and military service members “love me.”
Throughout his presidency, he crowed about trying to boost military pay, fighting to ensure soldiers got the weapons they needed, and working to end wars.
The Post contacted the Trump campaign for comment.
Trump is the commanding 2024 frontrunner to be the Republican standard bearer, according to recent polling.