by Mark Paoletta at the Federalist
John Kelly has done a disservice to the nation by being dishonest and insubordinate, quitting on the job, and now smearing Trump to help elect perhaps the worst presidential candidate in history.
As Donald Trump gains momentum to be reelected on Nov. 5, the anti-Trumpers have unleashed their last desperate wave of smears to stop him. Most despicably, but not surprisingly, former Chief of Staff and retired Marine Gen. John Kelly gave interviews to The New York Times and The Atlantic in which he claimed President Trump fit the definition of a fascist and supposedly made favorable comments about Adolf Hitler.
I worked in the White House with Kelly, and I don’t believe a word he says. He was a terrible chief of staff who dishonestly kept information from President Trump to pursue his own agenda, an unelected former military official substituting his judgment for the judgment of the duly-elected president.
In 2018, after Congress refused to appropriate adequate funding to build the wall along the southern border to secure it against illegal alien crossings, Trump asked Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney to find money in agency accounts to build the wall. Mulvaney asked OMB Deputy Russ Vought and me, as OMB general counsel, to do a deep dive to find the money, and with the help of superb career staff, we found a ton of funding at the Department of Defense we could legally use to build the wall.
But Kelly prevented Mulvaney from presenting this plan to President Trump. Several months later, in a meeting, the president said, “Mick, I asked you to find me money, and you haven’t.” Mulvaney responded, “I found the money, but I have not been able to brief you.” As the chief of staff, Kelly would not set up policy briefing time for Mulvaney to discuss the plan with President Trump. After this exchange, Mulvaney presented the plan, and the president authorized this strategy.
This was not the first time I saw this type of insubordinate…
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