Trump's former aides claim he lavished praise on the world's worst despots including evil Nazi chief: John Kelly says he branded Putin and Kim Jong Un 'ok guy' and thinks Xi Jinping is 'brilliant'

Donald Trump was complimentary about Adolf Hitler during the ex-president's time in the White House, his former chief of staff John Kelly according to a shocking new report from CNN. 

The network's Jim Sciutto reported that multiple insiders from the Trump administration, including Kelly, said that the Republican nominee was magnanimous in his praise for other dictators including Putin, China's autocratic leader Xi Jinping and North Korean despot Kim Jong Un. 

'He said: "Well, but Hitler did some good things." I said: "Well, what?" And he said: "Well [Hitler] rebuilt the economy." But what did he do with the economy? He turned it against his own people and against the world,' Kelly said.

The comments are part of segments released from Kelly's upcoming book The Return of Great Powers. 

Following his brutal rise to power in the 1930s, Hitler was responsible for the deaths of millions of people after instigating World War II. The Nazi ruler killed six million Jewish people alone in his death camps in central Europe. 

'And I said: "Sir, you can never say anything good about the guy. Nothing." I mean Mussolini was a great guy in comparison.' 

Republican nominee Donald Trump greets fans at a rally in Rome, Georgia, on Saturday March 9th 

According to a new book from his former chief of staff, Trump is full of praise for Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler 

The book also alludes to Trump's admiration for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin 

Trump is also a fan of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, despite his undemocratic policies 

Trump's love/hate relationship with Kim Jong Un has been a saga ongoing since his ascent to the presidency in 2016

Trump pictured with former chief of staff, John Kelly, and former national security advisor John Bolton, in 2018

Trump referred to Kim Jong Un as 'an okay guy' and called Xi Jinping 'brilliant' while also praising Putin privately in addition to his public admiration of the Russian leader. Publicly, Trump has called Putin 'very, very strong.'

Just last week, Trump was widely criticized for hosting Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban, a darling of American conservatives despite his anti-democratic policies, at Mar-a-Lago last week. 

Orbán's approach appeals to Trump's brand of conservatives, who have abandoned their embrace of limited government and free markets for a system that sides with their own ideology, said Dalibor Rohac, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

'They want to use the tools of government to reward their friends and punish their opponents, which is what Orbán has done,' Rohac said. 

Orbán's government has reciprocated, repeatedly praising the former president.

The Hitler praise may not come as a major surprise after Trump infamously hosted neo Nazi Nick Fuentes and anti-Semitic rapper Kanye West at his Florida residence in November 2022.  

'It's pretty hard to believe he missed the Holocaust, though, and pretty hard to understand how he missed the 400,000 American GIs that were killed in the European theater. But I think it's more, again, the tough guy thing,' Kelly went on speaking about Trump's feelings about Hitler.

Kelly went on to say that Trump would compliment Hitler's ability to generate extreme loyalty from his inner circle as he accused his own inner circle of betraying him. 

'He would ask about the loyalty issues and about how, when I pointed out to him the German generals as a group were not loyal to him, and in fact tried to assassinate him a few times, and he didn't know that,' Kelly said. 

'He truly believed, when he brought us generals in, that we would be loyal — that we would do anything he wanted us to do.' 

Trump's one-time national security advisor John Bolton told CNN that the ex-president views himself as a 'big guy.' 

'He likes dealing with other big guys, and big guys like Erdogan in Turkey get to put people in jail and you don't have to ask anybody's permission. He kind of likes that,' the former United Nations ambassador said. 

In response to the allegations, a Trump spokesman said that Kelly and Bolton suffer from 'Trump Derangement Syndrome.'

'John Kelly and John Bolton have completely beclowned themselves and are suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. They need to seek professional help because their hatred is consuming their empty lives,' Steven Cheung said. 

Kelly's book examines 'a new, more uncertain global order with reporting on the frontlines of power from existing wars to looming ones across the globe,' according to a new synopsis. 

Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un once exchanged threats of destruction and crude insults after North Korea in 2017 carried out a series of high-profile weapons tests aimed at acquiring ability to launch nuclear strikes on the U.S. mainland. 

Trump had said he would rain 'fire and fury' on North Korea and derided Kim as 'little rocket man' on a suicide mission, while Kim responded he would 'tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.' 

But they stopped such rhetoric and instead developed a personal relationship after Kim abruptly reached out to Trump in 2018 for talks on the fate of his advancing nuclear arsenal.

They met three times in 2018-2019, starting with a summit in Singapore that made Trump the first sitting U.S. president to meet a North Korea leader since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. 

Their meetings made little headway since their second summit in Vietnam in early 2019 ended without any deal following disputes over U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea.

Neo Nazi Nick Fuentes was invited for dinner at Mar-a-Lago in November 2022

Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un once exchanged threats of destruction and crude insults but met twice during Trump's presidency