As we just heard, retired four-star general John Kelly, who was one of Donald

Trump's White House chiefs of staff, told the New York Times, Donald Trump would

rule like a fascist if re-elected. Kelly also spoke to the Atlantic's

editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg for a new piece which quotes Donald Trump as once having said,

I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.

Goldberg is also moderator of Washington Week with the Atlantic here on PBS and joins us now.

Thanks for being here.

Thank you.

So John Kelly confirmed to you that Trump had said he wished military leadership showed

him the same kind of deference that Hitler's Nazi general showed him during

World War II, people who were totally loyal to him that followed orders, Trump is quoted

as saying, walk us through that part of your reporting.

Well, you know, we've known for several years from other reports, background reports mainly,

that Trump particularly in moments of high tension,

think the 2020 George Floyd unrest,

has expressed frustration that in a democracy,

generals can't just be ordered to do things that they consider to be illegal or immoral.

He had a frustration with obviously the generals he had hired into his cabinet Jim Mattis and so on but he also

had frustrations with the Pentagon itself and so these expressions of desire to be more like Hitler and have Hitler's relationship with his generals

came out in these moments of tension.

And again, especially around that George Floyd area where Trump has been excited as saying,

why can't you just go shoot them, shoot them in the legs is what he said to Mark

...