On Tuesday, a leaker from President Donald Trump’s first administration revealed one former top official’s unflattering opinion of the Commander-in-Chief. According to Miles Taylor – who served as Deputy Chief of Staff in the Department of Homeland Security – Trump’s second Chief of Staff, John Kelly, asserted that the president belongs in a “nuthouse.”
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“Trump’s ex-chief of staff John Kelly said this to me, six years ago,” posted Taylor. “‘I don’t know how he’s not in an institution somewhere, whether it’s jail or a nuthouse. He’s a seriously sick guy. I never heard him saying anything that wasn’t a lie.’ Trump has only gotten worse since.”
Kelly – a lifelong Marine who was appointed Commander of U.S. Southern Command by President Barack Obama – was often considered one of the “adults in the room” who kept things from flying completely off the rails during Trump’s first term. He resigned about halfway through amid reports of chaos in the White House and his deteriorating relationship with the president, at the time saying it was “the worst job I’ve ever had.” As one of his advisors told Politico, “While it got rocky at times, he kept the government on the tracks more than people realize or he’ll get credit for achieving or preventing.”
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During the 2024 campaign, Kelly offered a stark appraisal of his former boss when asked if Trump qualified as a fascist. “Well, looking at the definition of fascism,” said Kelly, reading from the dictionary, “It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy. So certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America. 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.” According to Kelly, Trump “commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too.’”
The latest revelation about Kelly’s opinion of Trump’s mental fitness comes amid a swell of warnings regarding the president’s possible cognitive decline. One widely cited psychologist recently suggested that Trump’s increasingly frequent on-camera “microsleeps,” mobility and speech issues, and other behavioral “glitches” are due to some form of “significant neurological decline,” such as stroke or dementia. And according to the president’s niece, psychologist Mary Trump, his “psychological crisis” has reached a “breaking point” as he’s “lost grip on reality.” Experts and insiders aren’t alone in this assessment, as polls have shown that more than half the country say Trump lacks the mental and physical health for office, with 48 percent saying he suffers from severe or modest cognitive decline.
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