Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates Says Trump Is ‘Beyond Repair’

[Rob L 3,811]

“He has no clue about the difference between negotiating a business deal and negotiating with sovereign nations.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/robert-gates-donald-trump-national-security_us_57dd63b4e4b08cb1409622ee?section=politics

WASHINGTON ― Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has served both Republican and Democratic presidents, sharply criticized Republican nomineeDonald Trump’s ability to lead the United States, writing that the business mogul was “beyond repair” when it came to national security.

“At least on national security, I believe Mr. Trump is beyond repair. He is stubbornly uninformed about the world and how to lead our country and government, and temperamentally unsuited to lead our men and women in uniform. He is unqualified and unfit to be commander-in-chief,” Gates wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-edpublished Friday evening.

Gates wrote that Trump was clueless when it came to the American military and foreign policy. Trump has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin repeatedly, threatened to not defend NATO countries, said he would “bomb the ” out of ISIS and seemed unfamiliar with Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

“Mr. Trump is also willfully ignorant about the rest of the world, about our military and its capabilities, and about government itself. He disdains expertise and experience while touting his own—such as his claim that he knows more about ISIS than America’s generals,” Gates wrote. “He has no clue about the difference between negotiating a business deal and negotiating with sovereign nations.”

Gates ran the CIA under President George H.W. Bush and served as defense secretary under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He wrote that all the leaders he served were smart enough to listen to their advisers ― even if they didn’t take their advice. Trump, he worried, would not.

“The world we confront is too perilous and too complex to have as president a man who believes he, and he alone, has all the answers and has no need to listen to anyone. In domestic affairs, there are many checks on what a president can do; in national security there are few constraints,” he said. “A thin-skinned, temperamental, shoot-from-the-hip and lip, uninformed commander-in-chief is too great a risk for America.”

Case in point: just last week, Trump threatened to start a war with Iran over hand gestures.

Trump responded to Gates in a tweet Saturday morning, saying his leadership had been “a total disaster.”

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Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

I never met former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. He knows nothing about me. But look at the results under his guidance - a total disaster!

4:51 AM - 17 Sep 2016

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Gates, who has been critical of the Obama administration, wrote that Hillary Clintonstill had time before the election to demonstrate her trustworthiness and show voters how she would deal with foreign policy issues in China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and the Middle East.

[floridadave 195]

It's amazing how many scholars, statesmen and notables from his own party sharply criticize or refuse to support the Republican nominee. Wow.

[TBoneTX 45,273]

Post with non-family-friendly term has been removed.

Please feel free to repost without that word.

[Póg mo 1,749]

It's amazing how many scholars, statesmen and notables from his own party sharply criticize or refuse to support the Republican nominee. Wow.

I don't know if this is a positive or a negative. Trump is running as an "out sider", so it may help him with the base.

It's amazing how many scholars, statesmen and notables from his own party sharply criticize or refuse to support the Republican nominee. Wow.

I don't know if this is a positive or a negative. Trump is running as an "out sider", so it may help him with the base.

[Umka36 781]

I can't vote for either candidate, and am very surprise Clinton isn't ahead by a landslide based on all the stuff that comes out of Trump. The candidates for each party suck this election year. I'll have to wait for the next election cycle.

Edited September 20, 2016 by Umka36

[floridadave 195]

I can't vote for either candidate, and am very surprise Clinton isn't ahead by a landslide based on all the stuff that comes out of Trump. The candidates for each party suck this election year. I'll have to wait for the next election cycle.

I have not voted for a major presidential candidate since 2000 at a time when I was a one issue (abortion) Republican. After the mess Bush II got us into I dumped the Republican party for good. However, this time I fear for the safety of this nation and it's people. Across the country, people of color are already suffering because of the Trump rhetoric, and he isn't even president yet. I am terrorized how it will be if he is elected, not just for people of color but for the nation as a whole. So this time around I MUST put America first and vote for "her." If Trump were not the nominee I'd skip voting this time too, but he is just too dangerous. Just my 2 cents.