Brian Kilmeade probably thought he was doing Donald Trump a favor when he attempted to justify the former president’s reported praise of Adolf Hitler.

However, his defense just made the former president seem really stupid.

Earlier this week, John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, told both The Atlantic and The New York Times that he heard the former president praise the Nazi leader and his generals on more than a few occasions.

On Wednesday, Kilmeade and his fellow “Fox & Friends” cohorts attempted to “sane-wash” Trump’s comments, but Kilmeade’s excuse for them came off as more of an insult.

“I can absolutely see him going, ‘Now, you know what, it would be great to have German generals that actually do what we ask them to do’ — knowing that’s a — maybe not fully being cognizant of the third rail of German generals who were Nazis and whatever,” Kilmeade said.

Here’s a clip of his comments.

Many people who saw Kilmeade’s comment realized that his excuse for Trump made the former president look like an idiot incapable of figuring out that if Hitler was a Nazi, his top generals probably were.

“Wait, Fox is trying to justify this by saying that Trump is too dumb to know that Hitler’s generals were ‘Nazis or whatever?’” is how Democratic strategist and former Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky interpreted Kilmeade’s defense.

Others agreed.