With Donald Trump gracing the cover of the latest Executive PA magazine, it couldn’t have been better timing to report the former president adding to his long record of offending others. This time, it’s his ex-chief of staff.
Once again disparaging military service, he declared the Presidential Medal of Freedom was “much better” than the Medal of Honor, which didn’t go down well with the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Trump’s former chief of staff (and retired Marine) Gen. John Kelly agreed with those criticising his comments and said to CNN: “The two awards cannot be compared in any way. Not even close.”
On a podcast a week later, Trump responded by saying: “Guys like John Kelly are one of the – he’s one of the dumbest people I’ve ever met. A bully, but a weak bully.” Later, he added that he was a “lowlife” and a “terrible, stupid person.”
Trump went on to discuss Gen. Mark A. Milley, the man he’d appointed as his top military adviser and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff: “Milley was a stupid person, very stupid.”
These harsh criticisms aren’t Trump’s first verbal attack on his former chief of staff. A few months prior, unprompted, he lashed out at the man he’d chosen to oversee the White House, saying he was “dumb” and a “lost soul.”
Going back further, Trump had declared Kelly was “by far the dumbest of my Military people” on social media. He added that he was “incapable of doing a good job, it was too much for him, and I couldn’t stand the guy, so I fired him like a ‘dog.’ He had no heart or respect for people, so I hit him hard.”
It’s no surprise that Trump isn’t singing Kelly’s praises, though, with his former employee having confirmed on the record that Trump really did denigrate American servicemembers as “suckers and losers.” He’s also said that his ex-boss poisons people’s minds, has “serious character issues” and isn’t a “real man.”
