For decades, reporters have been taught not to make 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 off limits.

And then came Donald Trump.

Trump is the first modern American political figure to force journalists to reassess whether Hitler references meet their editorial standards.

In my columns and other articles for The Intercept, I have drawn more and more attention to it obvious parallels between Hitler and Trump and between the Nazi movement and the MAGA cult. Yet most mainstream journalists have stubbornly stuck to the de facto ban on Hitler analogies and have refused to compare the two. The reluctance to point out the truth about Trump has been part of a larger pattern in the media of the so-called brainwashing of Trump, where his demagoguery, wild conspiracy theories and racist propositions are given credibility and serious treatment by the political press.

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

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

Kelly said he is convinced Trump is a fascist.

In his interview with the New York Times, Kelly pointed out the definition of fascist, saying it fits Trump: “Well, you look at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, coercive suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy … he certainly falls into 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 really can’t mean Hitler’s generals?’ And he said: ‘Yes, yes, Hitler’s generals’.”

It has been public 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 finally decided to reveal what he knows about Trump because he was afraid of Trump’s recent statements that he wants to use the US military against his political rivals and dissidents. Trump has called his political opponents “the enemy within,” and Kelly said those statements ultimately led him to go public.

It is important that Kelly has finally spoken out before the election. But he could have done this much sooner; It’s a wonder the January 6 uprising didn’t get him to do it.

Of course, January 6 also didn’t convince the mainstream press to start regularly comparing Trump to Hitler, even though the similarities between the 2021 uprising and Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 were there for all to see.

The irony is that if Trump were a political figure in another country, the American press would long ago have labeled him an autocrat. The American media is susceptible to domestic pressures and so often avoids obvious truths about American politics numbers and If the actions of United States Government. In fact, the refusal of the US press to say that Trump is a would-be dictator is similar to the way in which the US press refused to say that the Central Intelligence Agency had tortured prisoners at their black prisons during the war on terror. Instead of saying that the CIA engaged in torture, the press shamefully used it euphemisms such as “enhanced interrogation” and “harsh interrogation”. For many years, the use of the word “torture” to describe what the CIA did was forbidden by many news organizations. The rhetorical smoothing helped the CIA avoid accountability.

Today, the press must avoid repeating that failure and clearly draw 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 represents an existential threat to American democracy. His warning comes as a wake-up call in the night that the American press – and the American people – must heed.