Washington, DC – As the election in the United States enters its final stretch, the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris is amplifying scathing comments by a former top White House official, who served under Donald Trump, suggesting that the Republican candidate is a “fascist”.

In remarks published in the New York Times late on Tuesday, Trump’s longest serving White House chief of staff, General John Kelly, said that he witnessed the former president speak positively of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,’” Kelly told The New York Times.

A former Marine general, Kelly served as secretary of Homeland Security for the first months of Trump’s presidency in 2017 before becoming White House chief of staff – a position he held until 2019.

In a separate account, The Atlantic magazine reported, citing two unidentified sources, that Trump had said at the White House that he needs “the kind of generals that Hitler had”.

Harris said the reports are a “window into who Donald Trump really is”.

“Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable,” she told reporters outside the White House on Wednesday, warning that during a second term, officials like Kelly will not be around to “rein him in”.

She went on: “So, the bottom line is this: We know what Donald Trump wants; he wants unchecked power. The question in 13 days will be, what do the American people want?”

Earlier in the day, Harris’s vice presidential nominee Minnesota Governor Tim Walz delivered a similar message, urging Americans to vote for the Democratic ticket against what he called “Trump’s descent to madness”.

After casting an early vote, Walz told reporters he appreciated Kelly coming out at this moment. “I ask the American public to go see what he’s saying, and watch this descent,” he said.

On social media, Harris’s campaign sent out several posts amplifying the claims made by Kelly and The Atlantic.

Trump’s campaign has denied that the former president made those comments, accusing Kelly of telling “debunked stories”.

While he was serving at the White House, Kelly defended some of Trump’s most controversial policies, including the decree banning travelers from several Muslim-majority countries.

Civil rights groups argued at that time that the executive order was based on bigotry and an extension of Trump’s promise as a candidate to ban all Muslims from entering the country. But Kelly insisted that the ban was legal and necessary for national security.

Fascist definition

In his recent comments to The New York Times, Kelly said Trump fits the definition of a fascist.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines fascism as a populist ideology “associated with a centralised autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader”.

It adds that fascism is “characterised by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition”.

Kelly also said that Trump “admires” authoritarian leaders and “prefers the dictator approach to government”.

Successive presidents of both major parties have had close relations with autocratic governments and leaders across the world.

On Wednesday, Trump posted a campaign ad proclaiming that he is a patriot who “always fought for America”.