Listen to this article

US President Donald Trump has said his former chief of staff John Kelly could have been one of the four anonymous sources used by The Atlantic in the publication’s report that the president made disparaging comments about military troops. He said, “It could have been a guy like a John Kelly”, and called the story a “hoax”. The response from President Trump about his former chief of staff came after he was asked why General Kelly hasn’t denied or confirmed the report in The Atlantic. President Trump said, “I know John Kelly. He was with me. He had no temperament”. He also said that Kelly was exhausted and unable to function by the end of his time with the Trump administration. Trump said, “He was unable to handle the pressure of this job”. Point to be noted that John Kelly served as Trump’s chief of staff from July 2017 to January 2019.

President Trump has vehemently denied the report that released this week stating that he objected to visiting the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018 because he didn’t see the point in honoring the soldiers who died. Trump allegedly said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers”. The report has indicated the trip was canceled because his helicopter couldn’t fly in the rain that day and Secret Service was unable to take him to the cemetery. The White House has denied the reports by releasing a 2018 email stating the weather conditions were too poor that day to fly. Another allegation from the same trip involved Trump allegedly calling the Marines Suckers, who died at one of the toughest battles for the Marines during the First World War, Belleau Wood.

Some other allegations in the report included Trump questioning a young Marine’s sacrifice during a 2017 Memorial Day visit to Arlington Cemetery with General Kelly, citing multiple sources. The man in question was Kelly’s son 1st Lieutenant Robert Kelly who was killed in Afghanistan in 2010. General Kelly was serving as the president’s secretary of homeland security at the time. He was stopped at the son’s grave when visiting the cemetery. Trump reportedly turned to General Kelly and said, ”I don’t get it. What was in it for them”? Multiple former and current members of the Trump administration have said those instances never happened. The White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere slammed The Atlantic for using four anonymous sources in the report.