It’s not always obvious what constitutes an “October Surprise.” The concept is rooted in the idea that there are sometimes unexpected developments that jolt the public conversation in the runup to Election Day, which in turn affect the results.
All things considered, having a former White House chief of staff — who also happens to be a retired four-star general and decorated veteran — declare two weeks before the election that his former boss meets the definition of a “fascist” should probably meet the standard for an “October Surprise.” NBC News reported:
John Kelly, who was White House chief of staff during the Trump administration, said in a series of recent interviews that former President Donald Trump meets the definition of a fascist. The remark, published Tuesday, was made in one of Kelly’s interviews with The New York Times. Audio of his comments was made available online.
“Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure,” Kelly told the newspaper on the record.
He also said Trump “prefers the dictator approach to government,” repeatedly pushed the idea of using the military against Americans on American soil, and looked down on those who were disabled on the battlefield.
The comments come on the heels of retired Gen. Mark Milley, Trump’s former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also declaring on the record that he now believes the Republican candidate is “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.”
In other words, in the closing days of the 2024 election season, two retired four-star generals — both of whom Trump personally handpicked for powerful positions on his team — have publicly warned the American public that their former boss should be seen as a fascist.
To be sure, Kelly has invested a fair amount of time and effort in recent years to convince the country that the GOP nominee is a dangerous menace. Kelly, who also served as Trump’s Homeland Security secretary, has said that he came to realize that the Republican is guilty of “poisoning” people’s minds, having “serious character issues” and not being “a real man.”
Kelly has also said that Trump has “no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about” and has “nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.”
What’s more, Kelly told the New York Times in 2022 that Trump, during his presidency, told his chief of staff to use the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department to target critics and perceived political foes.
But up until now, Kelly’s never broached the “fascist” subject; he didn’t say any of this so close to an election; and these weren’t the only relevant comments Kelly has made in recent days.
As we’ve discussed, the retired general also spoke on the record with The Atlantic’s Jeff Goldberg, explaining that Trump also offered private praise for “Hitler’s generals.” (A Trump spokesperson denied the accuracy of the reporting. Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for the GOP campaign, also told NBC News that Kelly “totally beclowned himself” by recounting “debunked stories” about the administration.)
It was against this backdrop that Kelly also told the Times, in reference to Trump, “He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too.’”
To go ahead and state the obvious, modern American political leaders don’t think or speak this way. But just as notable is the unprecedented circumstances: The Republican Party has nominated an erratic criminal, running on an authoritarian platform, for the nation’s highest office, and prominent former members of that candidate’s team keep issuing dire warnings about how dangerous he would be if returned to power.