Trump denies ever saying he wanted generals like Hitler or that the Nazi leader “did some good things.”

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Former President Donald Trump denied Thursday that he ever said positive things about Hitler while in office, including saying he “needed the kind of generals Hitler had.”

“I never said that,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question about an article this week in The Atlantic.

“I would never say that,” he added, directly denying the magazine’s reporting.

Trump continued to criticize the article's author and the publication, calling it “a failing magazine.”

When asked for comment, The Atlantic spokeswoman Anna Bross said in a statement: “We stand by our reporting, as we have done with our previous reporting on former President Trump and his various statements.”

The magazine reported Tuesday that Trump said in a private conversation during his time in office that he needed generals like Adolf Hitler. “People who were completely loyal to him and following orders,” he said, The Atlantic reported, citing two people who said they heard his remark.

During Hitler's rule over Nazi Germany, approximately 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. According to the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, approximately 45 million civilians died worldwide during World War II, although estimates vary.

The Atlantic also reported that when Trump told John Kelly, his then-chief of staff, about “German generals,” Kelly asked if he meant “Bismarck's generals,” referring to Germany's first chancellor.

“I mean, I knew he didn't know who Bismarck was or knew anything about the Franco-Prussian War. I said, 'Do you mean the emperor's generals? Surely you can't mean that.' Hitler's Generals? And he said, 'Yes, yes, Hitler's generals,'” The Atlantic reported Kelly.

Kelly also told The New York Times in a series of recent interviews published online this week that Trump told him that “Hitler did some good things.”

Trump also denied making that comment on Thursday.

“I never said it,” he told reporters.

Trump's campaign team criticized Kelly's comments. Steven Cheung, a campaign spokesman, said Kelly had “completely embarrassed himself” by telling “debunked stories.”

According to the publication, Trump spokesman Alex Pfeiffer told The Atlantic in an email that the Hitler comments were “absolutely false.”

The former president has previously railed against Kelly, saying that during his tenure as chief of staff he “went in with a bang and went out with a whimper.” In August, Trump called Kelly “one of the stupidest people I've ever met.”

The Harris campaign released an ad Thursday night highlighting Kelly's comments about his former boss, a day after the vice president cited Trump's alleged comments arguing that he was “increasingly unhinged.”

Jillian Frankel reported from Las Vegas, Alex Tabet from Phoenix and Megan Lebowitz from Washington.