Donald Trump adores Viktor Orbán and Western populist leaders of his ilk. And so far nothing new. He barely hides his weakness for bloodthirsty autocrats and dictators like Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong Un. It's a much more indigestible piece, but one that we had to get used to chewing. But now there's more. The Republican leader candidate for a resounding return to the White House is said to have expressed in private conversations with his advisers a deep political appreciation, even for Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer Nazi who started the European massacre of World War II and organized the extermination of 6 million Jews. Jim Sciutto, journalist CNNin his new book The return of the great powers, out tomorrow in the United States. These sensational comments are now being reported to the reporter by John Kelly, the general that Trump wanted on his side as chief of staff from July 2017 to January 2019 as chief of staff. The reported conversations, previewed today on the American channel's website, therefore very probably date back to this period. “He said to me, 'Well, but Hitler did good things.' ” What ? ” I answer. “Well, he rebuilt the economy,” continues the magnate during the private meeting, from what Kelly reconstructs. Who said he was incredulous about the then president's statements. “But what did he do after rebuilding the economy? He turned it against his own people and against the world,” finds Trump the nitpicker. “Sir, you could never say something like that about this guy. Nothing,” the general tried to object, without much success.
The loyalty theorem
What is more alarming is that, according to Kelly, Trump's admiration for the Nazi dictator goes well beyond the recognition of more or less limited economic merits. But at the heart of his personality and his method of managing power. It is a trait that fundamentally unites him with the other “strong men” that the Republican boss adores. In another conversation, Trump reportedly focused on Hitler's unusual ability to secure the loyalty of the highest ranks of state — something he clearly failed to do during his first term. “He asked me about questions of loyalty and how the generals may have plotted several times to assassinate him, without his knowledge. He believed that we, the generals, would be loyal to him, that we would do whatever he asked us,” says Kelly, who, after the break with Trump, like many other former advisors, “repented” and now pledges to warn the American public against the dangers of a second term. “It is shocking to think of how easily he lost sight of the Holocaust or the 400,000 American soldiers killed in theater European” (to save the continent from Hitler, ed), says the former general again in the book, “but as said it is above all the question of the strong man”.
Political models
“He sees himself as a solid guy (big boy)”, confirms John Bolton, another “repentant” from the first Trump administration (he was national security advisor). “He likes dealing with other guys like him, guys like Erdogan in Turkey, who can put anyone in jail at will without having to ask anyone's permission. These are the things he loves.” Running a country like one of your companies or your old Reality show in short, where everything and everyone depends (and hangs) on him, and where anyone who no longer suits him can be expelled with a sigh. In political terms, this is called a dictatorship. Hence the irresistible fascination that strong men, even in today's world, exert on him. First in purely “demographic” terms, at least, the Chinese leader Xi Jinping: “Central decisions, a brilliant guy – declared Trump during a debate organized by Fox News last July – He governs 1.4 billion of people with an iron fist: intelligent, brilliant, perfect: there is no one like him in Hollywood”, he peeled his hands magnate. His communion of spirit also with Vladimir Putin, as he said or clarified on several occasions, Bolton still reminds the journalist CNN. Like when after a series of exhausting meetings with other Western leaders at the 2018 NATO summit, he admitted to journalists: “The easiest meeting for me would be the one with Putin. ” A Ok dude, as well as Kim Jong Un, according to those who worked with him on a daily basis. This is more or less what has been repeated in recent hours after the “home” visit of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán: “No one is a better or more intelligent leader than him: he is a fantastic leader” , declared the magnate. The political model to which he aspires could not be clearer. America will vote on his choice in less than eight months.
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