The mainstream media was afraid to compare Trump to Hitler. Now the press has no excuse.

For decades Reporters were taught not to use Hitler analogies in stories about American politics. Adolf Hitler was so uniquely evil that any comparison of an American politician to the Nazi leader was considered unfair and taboo.

And then came Donald Trump.

Trump is the first modern American politician to force journalists to reevaluate whether Hitler references meet their editorial standards.

In my columns and other articles for The Intercept, I have drawn attention to the increasingly obvious parallels between Hitler and Trump, and between the Nazi movement and the MAGA cult. Yet most mainstream journalists stubbornly adhere to the virtual ban on Hitler analogies and refuse to compare the two. This reluctance to reveal the truth about Trump is part of a larger pattern in the media of so-called “sane washing” of Trump, in which his demagoguery, wild conspiracy theories and racist suggestions are given credibility and serious treatment by the political press corps.

But with explosive new statements, Trump's former White House chief of staff has made it virtually impossible for the press to justify a continued ban on references to Trump and Hitler. John Kelly, a retired Marine general and Trump's longest-serving chief of staff, told The New York Times and The Atlantic in interviews published this week that Trump made it clear as president that he admired Hitler and longed for his authoritarian power.

Kelly said Trump had repeatedly said privately that Hitler “did some good things” and that Trump had said he wanted the kind of “German generals” who served under Hitler and committed unspeakable war crimes in World War II.

Kelly said he was convinced Trump was a fascist.

In his interview with the New York Times, Kelly pointed out the definition of fascism and said it fits Trump: “If you look at the definition of fascism, it is a far-right authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement that characterized by a dictatorship. “Leaders, centralized autocracy, militarism, violent suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy… he certainly falls within the general definition of fascist.”

Meanwhile, Kelly told The Atlantic that Trump wanted American generals to act like Hitler's Nazi generals. Kelly recalled asking Trump, “You sure can’t mean that Hitler's Generals?' And he said, 'Yes, yes, Hitler's generals.'”

It has been common knowledge for years that Kelly knew explosive details about Trump's time in the White House, but he has remained largely silent until now. He says he ultimately decided to reveal what he knows about Trump because he was afraid of Trump's recent comments about using the U.S. military against his political rivals and dissidents. Trump referred to his political opponents as the “enemy from within,” and Kelly said those comments ultimately led him to go public.

It's important that Kelly finally spoke out before the election. But he could have done this much sooner; It's a wonder the January 6th riot didn't prompt him to do this.

Of course, January 6th also didn't convince the mainstream press to regularly compare Trump to Hitler, even though the similarities between the 2021 uprising and Hitler's beer hall putsch in 1923 were obvious.

The irony is that if Trump had been a political figure in another country, the American press would have labeled him an autocrat long ago. The US media is vulnerable to domestic political pressure and therefore often avoids obvious truths about American politicians and the actions of the US government. In fact, the American press's refusal to say that Trump is a would-be dictator is similar to the way the US press refused to say that the Central Intelligence Agency tortured prisoners in its secret prisons during the war of terror. Instead of saying that the CIA tortured, the press shamefully used euphemisms like “enhanced interrogation” and “harsh interrogation.” For many years, many news organizations had banned the use of the word “torture” to describe the CIA’s actions. This rhetorical smoothing helped the CIA evade responsibility.

Today the press must avoid a repeat of that failure and draw clear comparisons between Trump and Hitler.

Now, finally, Kelly's statements provide all the ammunition the press needs. He has confirmed that Trump wants to be a dictator and that he poses an existential threat to American democracy. His warning comes like a firebell in the night that the American press – and the American people – must heed.