Fox & Friends cohosts Brian Kilmeade and Lawrence Jones endorsed Donald Trump’s desire for generals like Hitler had.
In case you’ve missed it, this week, The Atlantic reported on Donald Trump’s desire to be more like Adolph Hitler.
“I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” Trump said in a private conversation in the White House, according to two people who heard him say this. “People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.”
Later in the article, author Jeffrey Goldberg spoke with Trump’s former chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly about reporting in a book by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser in which Trump asked Kelly, “Why can’t you be like the German generals?” Goldberg asked Kelly about that for The Atlantic article. Kelly confirmed the report. He reportedly said, “’Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals?’ And [Trump] said, ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.’”
Goldberg also noted that in a book by CNN reporter Jim Sciutto, Kelly recalled Trump saying, “‘Well, but Hitler did some good things ... (Hitler) rebuilt the economy.’”
If you thought that defending a Hitler wannabe for president might be a bridge too far for Fox News, think again.
John Amato, at Crooks and Liars (where I am a contributor), caught the fascism love on Fox & Friends yesterday. Cohosts Brian Kilmeade and Lawrence Jones cited reporting that some of Trump’s top advisers, such as Kelly and then-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, were not always on board with Trump’s crazy ideas as evidence that Trump deserves the same kind of generals Hitler had:
KILMEADE: And then you factor in the fact that [Trump] runs his own company coming from the business world, the first one we've ever had. It's not even a public company. And then he obviously has frustration.
And I could absolutely see him going out. You know what? It would be great to have German generals that actually do what we ask them to do, knowing that maybe not fully being cognizant of the third rail of German generals who are Nazis and whatever.
But he was frustrated with the slowdown of commands that the government implemented.
JONES: It wasn't just a slowdown, it was insubordination. … Unelected people don't get to run the country, even if you have four stars behind your name. And I think they were very frustrated that you had this outside guy that says, listen, I'm in charge now.
“These creeps will defend the most despicable aspects of Trump's mind,” Amato wrote. He's not wrong.
And it's not just Fox & Friends hosts promoting fascism on the Murdoch network. Less than two weeks ago, during a discussion attacking Barack Obama for chiding Black men not supporting Kamala Harris, Outnumbered cohost Tomi Lahren sneered at democracy as an elitist principle unnecessary to most Americans. She said, “just as I said that democracy and January 6 - you have to come from a privileged position to care about those issues.”
Almost as disturbing as Lahren’s comments was the fact that none of her four cohosts objected. In fact, cohost Emily Compagno nodded as Lahren spoke.
You can best believe that if, God forbid, the felonious fraudster, sexual predator and Hitler-wannabe winds up back in the White House, Trump’s Fox News sycophants will be cheering whatever fascism and Hitlerian moves he and Project 2025’s J.D. Vance make. After all, this is the same network that coughed up $787.5 million for promoting what they knew were Trump's lies designed to overturn a democratic election.
I will continue to look out for and report on Fox News fascism going forward.
You can watch Kilmeade and Jones support Hitler generals in the White House (so long as it’s a Trump White House, of course) at Crooks and Liars. You can watch Lahren, Compagno and others show their support for fascism here.
(Image via screen grab)
