Trump Is Obsessed With Having a Dictator-Level Military

From the waning days of Donald Trump’s administration and beyond, the former president has been obsessed with the executive advantages of dictatorship.

A new report by The Atlantic found that, in private, Trump had openly praised the authoritarian setup of some of history’s greatest villains, including Adolf Hitler.

“I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” Trump said in a private conversation in the White House, according to two sources that spoke anonymously with The Atlantic. “People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.”

While in a frustrated discussion with then–Chief of Staff John Kelly, a former Marine general, Trump reportedly asked, “Why can’t you be like the German generals?” forgetting that Hitler’s top generals had themselves defied him and made several attempts toward the end of World War II to kill him. Kelly, trying to correct the president, informed him that German generals “tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off.”

But Trump wouldn’t hear of it. “No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,” the president responded, according to Peter Baker and Susan Glasser’s 2022 book, The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021.

When asked by The Atlantic about the exchange for the story published Tuesday, Kelly recalled that when Trump had raised the matter of “German generals,” Kelly responded by asking, “Do you mean Bismarck’s generals?”

“I mean, I knew he didn’t know who Bismarck was, or about the Franco-Prussian War. I said, ‘Do you mean the kaiser’s generals? Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals?’” Kelly told The Atlantic. “And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.’ I explained to him that Rommel had to commit suicide after taking part in a plot against Hitler.”

But Trump did not know who Rommel was, either.

During the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, Trump complained several times that the U.S. military wasn’t as draconian as the Chinese. “The Chinese Generals would know what to do,” he said in private conversations, referring to the Tiananmen Square massacre, sources told The Atlantic.

Meanwhile, Trump has spent months expressing outward disdain for Americans who actually served in the military. In August, the former president drew the ire of the Army after he was caught red-handed filming video in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, where recent military casualties are buried. Trump’s campaign staffers reportedly launched into a verbal and physical fight with cemetery officials, who had asked the campaign to stop videotaping. Federal law prohibits politically related activities in the cemetery, including taking photos and videos in support of a political campaign.

Earlier that month, the reputed Vietnam-era draft dodger came under additional fire for arguing that the Presidential Medal of Freedom he awarded to one of his billionaire donors was “much better” than the nation’s highest military honor, the Medal of Honor. That comment rubbed veterans the wrong way, who connected Trump’s disrespectful rhetoric to a 2020 Atlantic report that caught the former president repeatedly referring to fallen soldiers as “suckers and losers.”

And Trump’s attempts to cover his flailing image have been thoroughly undercut by his own actions. After offering in front of TV cameras to help personally pay for the funeral of Vanessa Guillén, a 20-year-old Army private who was beaten to death by a fellow soldier at Fort Hood, Trump reportedly complained to his then–Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about the cost of the burial.

“It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican,” Trump reportedly said, ordering Meadows not to pay it. Natalie Khawam, the Guillén family’s attorney, confirmed to The Atlantic that she had sent the funeral receipt to the White House following Trump’s offer but that the family had never received funds from him.

After Senator John McCain died in 2018, Trump reportedly told aides that they were “not going to support that loser’s funeral” and was irate that the White House had lowered its flags to half-mast in honor of the war hero. “What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser,” he said, according to The Atlantic.

Donald Trump’s cronies are already making plans to overturn North Carolina’s election results if a majority of the state’s voters choose Kamala Harris for president.

Ivan Raiklin, a supporter of the former president who calls himself Trump’s future “secretary of retribution,” has prepared a plan to deliver North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes to Trump, regardless of how the votes go. Raiklin, an attorney and military veteran, has close ties to people in Trump’s inner circle, including Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser who was pardoned by the former president. 

Raiklin told his plan to an audience at the Christian nationalist ReAwaken America Tour over the weekend in Selma, North Carolina, after being introduced by Flynn, according to Rolling Stone. Raiklin claimed that Hurricane Helene’s devastation may hurt Republican turnout in the state and give Democrats the edge on November 5, so he asked the crowd to pressure the state’s Republican leadership to ignore a favorable Democratic result.

Specifically, the leaders he mentioned were North Carolina state House Speaker Tim Moore and embattled Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, who presides over the state Senate. Raiklin’s plan involves the state legislature reacting quickly in January 2025 before the election results are certified by Congress, but only if Trump loses.

“If it’s legit, we don’t have to worry, right?” Raiklin told the partisan audience. “But who thinks it’s going to be legit? You think they’re just going to give it to you? No, there’s going to be a fight!”

Raiklin told the crowd to “apply the necessary motivation” to the state’s Republicans, who control both houses of the legislature, by telling the senators and representatives that “they have the political obligation to remedy an illegitimate election.”

In Raiklin’s mind, this process, which he said is “the only way … we can address” the “calamity in western North Carolina” in a “legal, moral, ethical manner under our Constitution,” would be livestreamed on Rumble and Elon Musk’s X, adding that he hoped the “radical left media” would “start to cry.”

Raiklin’s plan is far-fetched, but not far off from the many fake-elector schemes attempted after Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. While each one of those was thwarted, Raiklin’s cryptic language could incite MAGA-aligned protesters to attempt to force the state’s legislature to overturn a possible Democratic victory, which could turn into a mini-January 6. It all depends on whether Raiklin’s half-baked plan garners any support, or if he’s exposed as a blustering troll.

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Army to release all of its records related to Donald Trump’s controversial visit to Arlington National Cemetery in August.

American Oversight, a nonprofit organization dedicated to government transparency, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia asking for the records to be made public under the Freedom of Information Act.

Senior Judge Paul Friedman granted the group’s request, which asked for “any report—including, but not limited to, an incident report filed with U.S. Army Military Police Corps officials and/or any other military officials at Arlington National Cemetery—regarding the alleged incident reported to have taken place during the August 26, 2024, visit by former President Trump to Arlington National Cemetery.”

On August 26, Trump visited the cemetery to attend a wreath-laying ceremony for 13 U.S. service members who were killed in an attack at Kabul’s airport during the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan three years before. After the event concluded, Trump campaign staff recorded the former president smiling and giving a thumbs-up sign next to military graves, footage of which was later used in campaign ads.

When a cemetery employee tried to stop the campaign from taking photos or video, as such political activity is illegal, they were physically shoved by a Trump staffer. The employee opted not to press charges against the staffer, and wished to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation from Trump’s supporters. Trump, meanwhile, denied any wrongdoing. His campaign said it would release footage that would show that no laws were broken, but to date has not.

The judge gave the Army an October 25 deadline to release the requested records. Such material could prove damaging and embarrassing to the former president, possibly showing how the physical altercation was instigated and how Trump reacted to it. With the election only weeks away and Trump already having a poor reputation with military veterans, the former president is probably hoping no one pays attention when the truth finally comes out.

A federal judge has declared that Rudy Giuliani must hand over his most valuable possessions in just seven days to the Georgia election workers he defamed.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman ordered Giuliani to relinquish his possessions, including his Manhattan penthouse, to the mother-daughter duo Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. Since winning their defamation lawsuit against the former New York mayor and Donald Trump attorney last year, the pair have been waiting for Giuliani to pay up the $148 million judgment.

Giuliani was convicted last year of defaming Freeman and Moss, and inflicting emotional and reputational harm, in spreading lies that they tampered with ballots while working the polls in 2020.

After Giuliani failed to declare bankruptcy and still evaded accountability, the judge’s order Tuesday means that the election workers will finally have justice (and all of Giuliani’s prized assets) in just a week’s time. Some of that stuff may include: around two dozen watches (including a commemorative 9/11 watch), a signed Joe DiMaggio jersey, and a 1980 Mercedes.

This comes as just another blow for Giuliani, who formally lost his license to practice law in September.

“Last December, a jury delivered a powerful verdict in their favor, and we’re proud that today’s ruling makes that verdict a reality,” said Aaron Nathan, a lawyer representing Freeman and Moss. “This outcome should send a powerful message that there is a price to pay for those who choose to intentionally spread disinformation.”

The mother-daughter duo will also be entitled to an estimated $2 million in legal fees that Giuliani says Trump still owes him. One of Giuliani’s biggest assets is still up in the air: his Palm Beach, Florida,  condominium. 

While the judge has scheduled a hearing for Monday about Giuliani’s condo, it’s unclear how the former Trump lawyer will shake down the Republican nominee for the legal fees he’s owed.

This story has been updated.

After backing out of several major interviews at the last minute, Donald Trump has one last major appearance on the horizon: The Joe Rogan Experience.

The Republican presidential nominee will be meeting with the former Fear Factor host on Friday, reported Politico. It’ll be the first time that Trump has appeared on Rogan’s podcast.

Over the last several months, Trump has made a concerted effort to reach young, male voters by signing up for a slew of interviews with podcasters, including Twitch ban-ee Adin Ross; the Lex Fridman Podcast; Six Feet Under, hosted by wrestler Mark Calaway (perhaps better known as The Undertaker); and Theo Von’s podcast, This Past Weekend.

Meanwhile, Trump has aggressively dodged more mainstream news appearances, including going so far as to break election tradition by refusing to sit for a 60 Minutes interview in September, which he reportedly backed out of last-minute over fears that the rigorous show would fact-check him.

Rogan shared an odd moment with Trump in August, when the podcasting behemoth appeared to side with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the MAGA leader before the independent presidential candidate bent the knee to Trump. Trump then chose to clap back, writing on Truth Social that he was looking forward to Rogan getting “booed” at a UFC tournament.

Following the first presidential debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris last month, Rogan gave the Democratic presidential nominee her flowers, commenting on air that whoever helped coach her had done a “fucking amazing job.”

“See, the difference in that debate was not a difference in, like, who’s gonna have better policies? Who’s gonna be better for the country?” Rogan told comedian Tom Segura at the time. “The … debate, in my opinion, was who was better prepared. She was way better prepared.”

Harris has also been in talks to sit down with Rogan for an interview, reported Reuters.

Donald Trump is a total flake.

Citing “changes in Trump’s schedule,” the Republican nominee canceled on his old friend Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Representative Tulsi Gabbard at the last minute on Tuesday. Trump was supposed to join the two for a virtual Make America Healthy Again town hall at 2 p.m., but abruptly canceled the event just hours before.

This is actually the second time that Trump has scrapped his plans with Kennedy, according to an email from RFK Jr.’s team, with the previous virtual event canceled allegedly due to Hurricane Milton.

Is Trump questioning his alliance with Kennedy, who pulled out of the race in August in support of Trump, or is the 78-year-old just feeling a bit sleepy?

Hours before ditching the virtual town hall, during a speech in Miami on Tuesday, Trump slammed Kamala Harris for taking a day off. “She’s sleeping right now, she couldn’t go on the trail,” he said, trying and failing to repurpose his “Sleepy Joe” content. “You’d think when you have 14 days left you wouldn’t be sleeping. She’s not doing anything today. I should take one of those.”

In reality, Harris is not taking a day off; she’s doing interviews with NBC and Telemundo in Washington, D.C.

Over the past week, it seems as though Trump has bitten off more than he can chew, with the former president now canceling several appearances, including a speech at an NRA convention and The Shade Room, giving the same vague “scheduling conflicts” excuse.

On Tuesday morning in Florida, Donald Trump complained again about the “enemy within,” expanding his definition as the crowd around him cheered.

Speaking at an event for the Latino community at his Doral golf club, the former president complained about Israel’s military plans to attack Iran being exposed, either from a leak or from a hack of the Department of Defense.

“Who did that? Can you imagine somebody doing that? That’s the enemy, I guess that maybe is the enemy from within, as I talk about. We have an enemy from within, they hate to talk about it. Could you imagine, could you imagine,” Trump said. The room then broke out into applause.

Over the past week, the former president has repeatedly used the phrase “enemy within” to describe his political opponents, specifically mentioning leading Democrats like Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff. And his latest statement shows he has no intention of backing away from the violent rhetoric.

Trump’s former staff, including former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, say that his words are alarming and should not be dismissed. Trump’s comments are more worrying when taken with his recent pronouncement at a faith leaders’ event in North Carolina that only the people he likes should enjoy the right to free speech.

This means that, in the former president’s view, if someone is not on board with his extreme agenda, not only do they not have the right to protest, they are “the enemy within.” Since Trump now claims that “Make America Great Again” means taking the country back to 1798, while slavery was still legal and women couldn’t vote, most of the country would be his enemy.

Donald Trump appeared incredibly out of it during a campaign event with Hispanic voters in Doral, Florida, on Tuesday. 

Trump was joined onstage by U.S. Senator Rick Scott, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, and Doral Mayor Christi Farga—only he couldn’t seem to locate Farga, who was sitting just to his left. 

“Where’s Christi? Is she around? Christi? Christi?” Trump asked, looking wildly around for the woman seated next to him.  

“Right here,” Farga said gently. 

“Oh, Christi! Christi, ohhhh my Christi!” Trump said, sighing, as audience members laughed and whooped at his gaffe. Farga had also greeted Trump when he came onstage nearly 40 minutes after the opening speakers had concluded. 

As Trump spoke, he seemed to become untethered from reality, as he clumsily discussed energy policy, claiming that environmentalists actually hate solar energy.

“A solar field the other day that looked like it took up half the desert. I’d never saw anything like it. It’s all steel and glass and wires and … it looks like hell,” Trump said. “And you see rabbits, they get caught in it, and every—you know for the environmentalists, it’s just terrible.

“And what it does to your desert areas, or the areas that you’re putting it in, it’s just crazy,” he continued, adding that he thinks solar panels are OK if they’re on rooftops. 

Trump said he preferred “stuff right under the ground” such as natural gas. The former president has repeatedly said that if he’s elected, he hopes to expand natural gas mining, called hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracking, in the United States to create energy independence, increase America’s energy exports, and boost the economy. 

Of course, that would involve cutting key regulations on liquefied natural gas, a highly volatile substance that when mishandled or stored can cause deadly explosions. Not to mention the dangers of fracking itself, which has resulted in reserves of potable groundwater becoming poisoned with chemicals, sometimes so severely that it can become flammable. 

Not only is Trump’s plan for energy independence dangerous, it’s literally a pipe dream. The former president claimed in a speech Monday that he achieved energy independence during his administration and that it was undone by President Joe Biden. That is completely false; the U.S. hasn’t been energy independent for more than 75 years. 

Kamala Harris, who once said she would ban fracking, has since walked back her position. Trump continues to insist that Harris opposes it. While neither candidate opposes fracking, the people actually living on the shale Trump intends to drill into, who remember when fracking first contaminated their water, sure do.  

Trump previously held a rally in Doral, Florida, in July, where he gave a rambling speech that ricocheted from the death penalty and crying mothers to crappy airports and complaints that no one eats bacon anymore. At the time, it was a terrifying, incoherent tirade. Three months later, it would be considered run of the mill for the Republican presidential nominee. Trump doesn’t get better; we all just seem to get used to it. 

Some of the country’s largest grassroots political donors are handing their money over to Republicans—but they don’t seem to be aware of it.

Hundreds of elderly dementia patients are fueling America’s campaign finance system, collectively shelling out millions of dollars to political candidates while they themselves struggle for cash, according to a CNN investigation published Tuesday.

Some patients, lured by the deceptively direct and aggressive automated messaging strategies utilized by political campaigns, felt that they were taking part in a network of political operatives and had a direct line to either Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris.

“President Trump NEVER does this! He personally tapped YOU to become a MAGA Living Legend!” read one message from the Trump campaign.

“The blunt truth: Kamala is BEHIND, and she’s COUNTING on us!” read a note from Harris’s team.

That presumed and false connection drove the dementia patients to tap into retirement savings in order to contribute six-figure sums to the candidate of their choice, CNN reported. Some even threw themselves into debt over the course of thousands of transactions to politicians they believed they were communicating with directly.

One Baltimore-area victim, an 83-year-old woman whom CNN described as wearing “pajamas with holes in them because she didn’t want to spend money on new ones,” didn’t know she had given Republicans more than $350,000 since 2020.

An 80-year-old communications engineer from Texas was another dementia patient who fell prey to the deception. In September 2022, the unnamed man donated $250 to Ron Johnson’s campaign for Senate over the platform WinRed. But as he was barraged with messages over the next year and a half, the Lone Star senior—who for years had thrifted his clothes and driven an old car in order to save for his retirement—unknowingly made more than 15,000 transactions, amounting to more than $440,000 in donations.

CNN noted that the man’s son had spent weeks trying to “help him get the money back” from WinRed but was only able to secure refunds for a third of his father’s political contributions.

Data from the Federal Trade Commission revealed that WinRed had nearly seven times as many FTC complaints as its Democratic competitor, ActBlue. Trump was the single largest beneficiary of the donations.

The majority of victims identified by CNN were in their eighties and nineties and included veterans, house cleaners, nursing home residents, and widows living alone. Some of the donors had coughed up more cash to politicians than they had paid for their homes.

Donald Trump is either trying to make Pennsylvania sports fans hate him or send cryptic QAnon cues—or perhaps he just needs to hire a proofreader.

In an email to his supporters on Monday night, Trump included a fun typo that caught the attention of many of his critics.

“Working at McDonalds, a town hall, a Stealers [sic] game—no one is working harder than President Trump to Make America Great Again!” the campaign newsletter read.

Trump is trying, and thanks to the typo seriously failing, to paint himself as a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, named for the city’s steel industry (an industry that Trump ultimately harmed through his tariffs in his previous term). He even went as far as to make a strange AI-generated photo of himself sporting the number 47 jersey. Though the number probably is supposed to refer to him being the forty-seventh president, for real fans it brought to mind ex-Steelers player Mel Blount, who endorsed Kamala Harris.

Similarly, Elon Musk caught flack online after trying to root for both the Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Trump’s “Stealers” flub was seized upon by Representative Adam Schiff, who Trump recently threatened, calling him “the enemy within.” The Democratic representative snarkily called the mistake an “authoritarian slip.”

If the typo was in fact an accident, and not a call to “stop the steal,” perhaps Trump should reconsider his call to destroy the Department of Education, which helps make sure the nation’s children learn how to spell.