Retired general compares Trump to Mussolini after White House cancels newspaper subscriptions

A decorated retired US Army general compared President Trump to Benito Mussolini over the decision by the administration to order federal agencies to cancel subscriptions to The New York Times and The Washington Post.

‘The White House Trump statement telling the entire Federal Government to terminate subscriptions to the NYT and Wash Post is a watershed moment in national history,’ Barry McCaffrey, a retired four-star general, tweeted on Friday.

‘No room for HUMOROUS media coverage. This is deadly serious. This is Mussolini.’ 

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is describing the move as a cost-saving measure.

Retired four-star general Barry McCaffrey (left) compared President Trump (right) to Italian fascist wartime dictator Benito Mussolini over the administration’s decision to order federal agencies to cancel subscriptions to The New York Times and The Washington Post

McCaffrey tweeted: ‘No room for HUMOROUS media coverage. This is deadly serious. This is Mussolini’

Grisham said that ‘not renewing subscriptions across all federal agencies will be a significant cost saving for taxpayers – hundreds of thousands of dollars.’

Trump is often critical of the two newspapers and said in a Fox News interview on Monday that ‘we don’t want’ the Times in the White House anymore, and ‘we’re going to probably terminate that and The Washington Post.’

White House aides say the print editions of the newspaper are no longer coming into the White House, though online access continues.

The White House’s subscriptions ended Tuesday. 

It’s unclear how the White House will be able to stop Cabinet agencies, VA hospitals and military bases from subscribing to two of America’s most widely read newspapers.

Both offer free digital subscriptions to federal government employees and servicemen and women whose email addresses end in ‘.gov’ or ‘.mil.’

Trump is an avid newspaper reader, but Grisham confirmed to Politico that ‘we won’t be renewing’ the dead-tree editions.

The White House’s other newspaper subscriptions are still active, including Financial Times, The Hill, the New York Post, Politico, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times and USA Today.

The president did not appear to be referring to the White House access Times and Post reporters enjoy, and no one at the White House has made a move to restrict West Wing access to the papers’ online editions.

A Bloomberg reporter captured a photo on Thursday of a side table near the press secretary’s office where newspapers are spread out daily for staff to read. the Times and Post were not among them. 

Jonathan Karl, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said on Thursday, ‘I have no doubt the hardworking reporters of The New York Times and Washington Post will continue to do quality journalism, regardless of whether the president acknowledges he reads them. 

‘Pretending to ignore the work of a free press won’t make the news go away or stop reporters from informing the public and holding those in power accountable.’

A Bloomberg reporter captured a photo on Thursday of a side table near the press secretary’s office where newspapers are spread out daily for staff to read. the Times and Post were not among them

McCaffrey, who works as a paid analyst for NBC News, has been a frequent critic of the president. 

During a television appearance last week, McCaffrey said Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from a border region in northern Syria was ‘inexplicable.’ 

The decision paved the way for a Turkish incursion into Kurdish-held areas of northern Syria – this after years during which the Kurds fought alongside American forces against ISIS.

‘Mr Trump seems to have single-handedly and unilaterally precipitated a national security crisis in the Middle East,’ McCaffrey said.

Last year, McCaffrey made headlines when he accused Trump of being a threat to national security by not being strongly opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

‘It is apparent that he is for some unknown reason under the sway of Mr. Putin,’ McCaffrey told MSNBC.   

Benito Mussolini, the dictator who wanted to revive the Roman empire

Benito Mussolini, who styled himself Il Duce, came to power in a 1922 coup when he led his followers in a march on Rome. 

He allied himself with other European Fascist leaders including Adolf Hitler and Spain’s General Francisco Franco, sending troops to fight in the Spanish Civil War that overthrew the 2nd Republic.

Mussolini dreamed of refounding the Roman Empire, and luanched a series of conquests in Africa, including that of Ethipia, then uncolonised and ruled by King Haile Sellasie.

The fascist air forces used chemical wepaons in both Libya and Ethiopia.

Mussolini held off a joining the Axis side in World War II until after the Nazi conquest of France. 

His attempted conquest of Greece was a disaster, forcing Germany to send troops to turn the tide to prevent Britain gaining an allied base in southern Europe.

Mussolini’s bid to seize Egypt from Britain suffered a similar fate, drawing Germany into a costly two-and-a-half-year campaign.

When the allies invaded Italy from North Africa in 1943, Mussolini was quickly ousted the way he came in, by a coup, with the new govenment promptly switching sides in the war.

He was imprisoned in the Campo Imperatore Hotel on the Gran Sasso massif in the Central Italian mountains, but was freed in a raid by Italian paratroopers ordered by Hitler himself.

Meanwhile German troops had invaded northern Italy and Italian Jews, previously spared from the Holocaust, were deported to the Nazi death camps.

Mussolini met his end in the closing days of the war when he was captured by communist partisans while trying to flee to neutral Switzerland with his his mistress Clara Petacci.

The two were taken to the city of Milan and executed on April 25. Citizens spat on and mutilated their bodies before they were hung upside down from lamposts.