Previous Chief of Staff John Kelly is one of numerous high-profile military leaders who have criticized the previous president. Here are a few significant others.
On October 5, 2017, Trump’s former Chief of Staff John Kelly listens to then-President Donald Trump speak during a briefing with senior military officers in the White House Cabinet Room.
Former high-profile military officials are warning former President Donald Trump, citing his language of loving tyrants and threats to use the military against domestic opponents.
Trump’s former Chief of Staff, retired Marine General John Kelly, told The New York Times on Tuesday that Trump met the criteria of a fascist, citing his adoration for Adolf Hitler as well as his ignorance of history and the rule of law.
Kelly is the latest general who worked under Trump to raise worries about the former president so close to the election.
More than a dozen high-ranking military commanders have openly denounced him in the years after his first term ended, including remarks made by retired generals last week.
Mark Milley and James Mattis. Here are some of the naysayers and what they have said.
The military leaders who have spoken out against Trump
| Name | Highest rank achieved | Verdict on Trump | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Mike Mullen | Admiral, Navy | During Trump’s infamous St. John’s Church photo op, Mullen wrote in 2020, “he laid bare his disdain for the rights of peaceful protest in this country, gave succor to the leaders of other countries who take comfort in our domestic strife, and risked further politicizing the men and women of our armed forces.” |
 | John Kelly | General, Marine Corps | “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 New York Times. |
 | Mark A. Milley | General, Army | Trump is a “fascist to the core,” Milley told the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward. |
 | James Mattis | General, Marine Corps | Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us, Mattis wrote in a June 2020 statement to the Atlantic. |
 | H.R. McMaster | Lieutenant General, Army | In the January 6 siege on the Capitol, Trump “abandoned his oath to ‘support and defend the Constitution,’ a president’s highest obligation,” McMaster wrote in his 2024 book. |
 | Mark Esper | Lieutenant Colonel, Army | After stolen documents were found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, Esper said that stashing them there was an “irresponsible action that places our service members at risk, places our nation’s security at risk.” |
 | Stanley McChrystal | General, Army | McChrystal said Trump was “immoral” in a 2018 interview with ABC News. |
Table: Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky | U.S. News & World Report
Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, former chief of staff for Trump
Kelly was the Trump White House’s longest-lasting chief of staff, serving from 2017 until 2019. In an interview with The Times, Kelly stated that Trump fits the “general definition of fascist” and is an authoritarian who admires dictators.
Notably, the former four-star general described Trump’s infatuation with Hitler, claiming that the former president repeatedly stated that Hitler “did some good things, too.”
In an interview with The Atlantic, Kelly also described Trump’s contempt for disabled veterans, saying that Trump used the phrases “suckers” and “losers” to describe soldiers who died in the line of duty.
Retired army General Mark A. Milley, former chairman of the joint Chiefs of Staff under President Trump and Joe Biden
According to “War,” a new book published earlier this month by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward, Milley, a former four-star Army general with over 40 years of service, warned that Trump is a “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.”
Milley also told Woodward that he had “suspicions” about Trump’s mental decline but eventually realized that “he’s a total fascist.” He said he was “deeply convinced” that Trump remained a threat to the country after losing the 2020 election and recounted his fears of being court-martialed if Trump won in November.
Jim Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general and former Secretary of Defense under Trump
Mattis, who resigned as defense secretary in December 2018 over Trump’s Syria policy, called Trump a threat to the Constitution in a 2020 Atlantic piece, accusing him of instructing the military to violate individuals’ constitutional rights and separating Americans.
Mattis wrote the piece around the time of the mass protests across the country in response to the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed African American in Minneapolis, saying he watched the militarized response “angry and appalled,” adding, “We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.”
Recently, Woodward revealed that Mattis privately concurred with Milley’s view that Trump posed a threat to the country.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, former national security adviser for Trump
McMaster, a three-star Army general famed for his exploits in the Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom, wrote a thorough but critical account of the Trump administration in his new book, “At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House.”
McMaster, who was national security advisor from 2017 to 2018, described sessions in the Oval Office as “exercises in competitive sycophancy” in which aides to the former president would flatter him by saying things to appease him.
He also documented Trump’s outrageous remarks, such as, “Why don’t we just bomb the drugs?”” in Mexico, and “Why don’t we eliminate the entire North Korean Army at one of their parades?”
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper and former Secretary of the Army
During an interview on CNN in 2023, Esper declared Trump a security threat, claiming that if the charges against him in his indictment for stolen documents discovered at his Mar-a-Lago resort were accurate, he could no longer be trusted with America’s secrets.
He slammed Trump’s decision to keep documents in his own residence, calling it a “irresponsible action that puts our service members at risk and our nation’s security at risk.” Esper, who was notably sacked by Trump in 2020 by tweet, was also critical of Trump in his book, “A Sacred Oath,” published in 2022. Esper also worked as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve.
Other Notable Military Leaders Who Have Criticized Trump
Not all of the military officers who have opposed Trump served in his administration. These are some of the noteworthy military personnel unrelated to the former president who have also chastised him:
Retired Army General Stanley McChrystal, former Joint Special Operations Command leader from 2003 to 2008.
McChrystal, who transformed the Joint Special Operations Command, which was responsible for killing al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, wrote in a New York Times op-ed that Vice President Kamala Harris was the best candidate for negotiating with foreign leaders and was more reliable on the international stage than Trump.
The former four-star general also stated, “Our president must be more than a malleable reflection of the public’s passions.”
He earlier chastised Trump in 2018, calling him immoral, self-serving, and unrepresentative of American principles; in the op-ed, he appeared to reinstate those criticisms, portraying Harris as unselfish and “working in our national interest, not her own.”
Retired Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2007 to 2011.
In an op-ed for The Atlantic written around the time of the Floyd protests, Mullen, a four-star admiral who served under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, criticized Trump’s use of the National Guard to clear Lafayette Square for his visit to St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C. He warned that fellow Americans aren’t enemies and “must never become so.”
Mullen additionally claimed that Trump’s action that day “laid bare his disdain for the rights of peaceful protest in this country, gave succour to the leaders of other countries who take comfort in our domestic strife, and risked further politicizing the men and women of our armed forces.”
Former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO James Stavridis, former Navy Admiral
In an op-ed for Time Magazine, Stavridis, a retired four-star admiral who headed NATO’s global operations from 2009 to 2013, criticized Trump’s use of the National Guard against Black Lives Matter demonstrators in 2020.
He characterized the use of combined civil-military action as “beyond the pale of American norms” and stated it was “particularly ill-advised to include active duty military personnel in that event.”
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