Launching a scathing attack on her Republican rival former president Donald Trump, Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Wednesday charged that he is “unfit” to lead the country.

“Yesterday we learned that Donald Trump's former chief of staff, John Kelly, a retired four-star general, confirmed that while Donald Trump was president, he said he wanted generals like Adolf Hitler had,” Harris told reporters at her official residence in the American Capital.

“Donald Trump said that because he does not want a military that is loyal to the United States Constitution. He wants a military that is loyal to him. He wants a military who will be loyal to him personally, one that will obey his orders even when he tells them to break the law or abandon their oath to the Constitution of the United States,” she said.

“In just the past week, Donald Trump has repeatedly called his fellow Americans the enemy from within, and even said that he would use the United States military to go after American citizens,” Harris said.

Harris, who became the nominee of the Democratic Party a little over 100 days ahead of the November 5 general elections, said this a day after Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, spoke against him.

“Certainly, the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that. So, he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure,” Kelly told The New York Times in an interview.

“He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government,” Kelly alleged. Trump “never accepted the fact that he wasn’t the most powerful man in the world — and by power, I mean an ability to do anything he wanted, anytime he wanted,” he said.

Trump dismissed the allegations. “Thank you for your support against a total degenerate named John Kelly, who made up a story out of pure Trump Derangement Syndrome Hatred! This guy had two qualities, which don’t work well together. He was tough and dumb,” Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social.

“The problem is his toughness morphed into weakness, because he became JELLO with time! The story about the Soldiers was A LIE, as are numerous other stories he told. Even though I shouldn’t be wasting my time with him, I always feel it’s necessary to hit back in pursuit of THE TRUTH,” he said.

‘‘John Kelly is a LOWLIFE, and a bad General, whose advice in the White House I no longer sought, and told him to MOVE ON! His wife once told me, at Camp David, John admires you tremendously, and when he leaves the Military, he will only speak well of you. I said, Thank you!” Trump said.

In a statement, Steven Cheung, Trump Campaign communications director said, "Harris is a stone-cold loser who is increasingly desperate because she is flailing, and her campaign is in shambles.

“That is why she continues to peddle outright lies and falsehoods that are easily disproved. The fact is that Kamala's dangerous rhetoric is directly to blame for the multiple assassination attempts against President Trump and she continues to stoke the flames of violence all in the name of politics. She is despicable and her grotesque behaviour proves she is wholly unfit for office," he alleged.

In another post on Truth Social, Trump said, “Harris’ sinking Campaign has become so TOXIC, that Democrat Senators in four different States are using me in their advertisements, and stating that they are with President Trump on Tariffs, and numerous other things.’’ “While it is a great compliment, it is not fair to those Republican Senate Candidates, Bernie Moreno, Dave McCormick, Eric Hovde, and Sam Brown, who are with me all the time. These Democrats have voted with Crooked Joe Biden almost 100 per cent of the time. They only pretend to be on my side when Elections roll around. OHIO, PENNSYLVANIA, WISCONSIN, NEVADA: VOTE FOR BERNIE MORENO, DAVE MCCORMICK, ERIC HOVDE, AND SAM BROWN - THEY ARE THE ONES WHO ARE WITH US!”

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.