By Jürgen Bätz

Washington DC - According to a new book, Donald Trump allegedly made positive comments about Adolf Hitler during a trip to Europe while he was president.

The upcoming book by Michael Bender, a Wall Street Journal correspondent, was made available to the Guardian on Wednesday.

Titled Frankly, We Did Win This Election, the book offers the account of a 2018 trip to Europe to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I during which Trump allegedly told his then-chief of staff, John Kelly, "Well, Hitler did a lot of good things, too."

Kelly is described as being shocked and immediately rebuking Trump: "You cannot ever say anything supportive of Adolf Hitler," he is quoted as saying. "You just can’t."

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Liz Harrington, a spokesperson for Trump, denied the alleged quote. "This is totally false. President Trump never said this. It is made-up fake news, probably by a general who was incompetent and was fired.," Liz Harrington told The Guardian, referring to Kelly, a retired general.

In the book, Bender quotes unnamed sources who confirmed Trump's statement. The former president apparently added to Kelly's horror by stressing that Germany's economy was booming under Hitler in the 1930s, according to the Guardian report.

Trump also had to be reminded about the history of the war and which countries were involved, as well as the differences and connections with World War II.

The book will be published on July 13.