'God help us': Trump's ex-chief of staff unleashes on former boss as he confirms contempt for troops

Gen. John Kelly, who previously served as former President Donald Trump's chief of staff and Secretary of Homeland Security, came forward to CNN's Jake Tapper this week to confirm many of the ugly things the former president was previously reported to have said about U.S. servicemembers.

“What can I add that has not already been said?” said Kelly. “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs, are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’

"A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France."

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Kelly went on to add that Trump is "not truthful" about his political positions, "has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about."

He then attacked his former boss for claiming that ex-Joint Chiefs Chair Mark Milley, who frequently tried to rein in the former president's impulses, should be executed for treason.

The former president's statements about Milley have drawn outrage, with some of his Republican rivals, including former running mate Mike Pence, calling them "inexcusable."

Trump, Kelly concluded, has "nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law."

"God help us," he added

Many of the allegations Kelly referenced stem from a 2020 article in The Atlantic by Jeffrey Goldberg, who claimed that, among other things, Trump said “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” while touring graves of Iraq and Afghanistan war dead in Arlington Cemetery, and that behind closed doors he called the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who was tortured for information as a POW in Vietnam, and former President George H. W. Bush, who was shot down as a World War II Navy pilot, "losers."