Trump's envy of Hitler revealed by his own ex-chief of staff

Former Trump chief of staff John Kelly tells CNN that former President Donald Trump openly envied the late Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and the loyalty he supposedly inspired in subordinates.

In an interview with CNN, Kelly recounted how the former president would praise Hitler for his economic record while also saying he "did some good things" despite being one of the worst mass murderers in the history of the world.

"And I said, ‘Sir, you can never say anything good about the guy. Nothing,’” Kelly told CNN. “I mean, Mussolini was a great guy in comparison.”

Trump also said that Hitler enjoyed "loyalty" from his top generals that the former president himself did not enjoy.

Kelly told CNN that he had to correct Trump on this misperception as well.

“He would ask about the loyalty issues and about how, when I pointed out to him the German generals as a group were not loyal to him, and in fact tried to assassinate him a few times, and he didn’t know that,” Kelly said. “He truly believed, when he brought us generals in, that we would be loyal — that we would do anything he wanted us to do."

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Kelly also said that Trump privately peddled Kremlin talking points about NATO and even blamed the Western alliance for supposedly forcing Russian President Vladimir Putin to act aggressively militarily.

“He thought Putin was an OK guy and Kim was an OK guy — that we had pushed North Korea into a corner,” said Kelly. “To him, it was like we were goading these guys. ‘If we didn’t have NATO, then Putin wouldn’t be doing these things.’”

Kelly also speculated that Trump liked dictators because they gave off the impression of being "tough," which was how he saw himself.

"He’s not a tough guy by any means, but in fact quite the opposite,” Kelly said. “But that’s how he envisions himself.”