John Kelly confirms Trump privately disparaged U.S. service members and veterans (2023)
www.nbcnews.com

... Former Trump White House chief of staff John Kelly is blasting his onetime boss over disparaging remarks he says the then-president repeatedly made about service members and veterans and for what he called Trump's untruthfulness about his positions on various groups as well as on abortion.

In a statement to CNN published Monday, Kelly delivered a scathing criticism of former President Donald Trump while confirming reporting in The Atlantic in 2020 that detailed the comments he made during his presidency.

"A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all suckers' because there is nothing in it for them,'"

Kelly said of Trump. "A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because it doesn't look good for me.'

A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family -- for all Gold Star families -- on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America's defense are losers' and wouldn't visit their graves in France." ...