Donald Rumsfeld likes Trump – but not everything he says
Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is unapologetic, and some would say unrepentant. Unlike many of his cohort from the George W. Bush White House who have either denounced Donald Trump or have remained mum on the man, Rumsfeld is a supporter. “I’m Republican, I’m endorsing the Republican nominee, Donald Trump,” he tells me. And the former Secretary of Defense doesn’t truck with those who blame him for the mess that is the Middle East right now. “I simply think that’s not true,” he says.
When pressed about some of Trump’s positions, however, it becomes slightly more complicated. He acknowledges that Trump’s thinking doesn’t always “jibe” (my word, not Rummy’s) with his, saying he doesn’t agree with Trump on everything. Like what exactly? Building a wall with Mexico and making that country pay for it? Banning Muslims from coming into the US? Rumsfeld wouldn’t comment specifically on either.
“I’ve never met him so I don’t know him,” Rumsfeld remarked. He notes that Trump has a singular way of putting things. For instance: “NATO could benefit from some readjustment,” Rumsfeld says. “When I say it that way, people’s eyes glaze over. When he says it his way he gets the Republican nomination.” As for Hillary Clinton, she “has a history of not being believable,” he says. She is an “unacceptable” choice.
What should the next president do? America needs to “act like a superpower,” Rumsfeld says. We’ve created a “leadership vacuum.” Rumsfeld ticks off cyber security, ISIS, Russian aggression and says all these developments would be having different outcomes if the United States would act like a super power again. How do we do that, I asked? “To be proud of what we have achieved as a nation, that we are a model that people all over the world want to replicate, that freedom does have a value. It’s not an accident that this continent, North America, is the most successful continent on the face of the earth. By golly, we oughta be proud of what we’ve got as a nation.”
As for those who blame him for the current situation in the Middle East, he disagrees, saying, “President Bush made a decision on Iraq that was the only decision he could make. The evidence was persuasive to a majority of the member of the Senate and House Democrats and Republicans it strikes me that he made the proper decision based on the facts that he had. Personally I think the world’s a better place without Saddam Hussein.” Rumsfeld says the Obama administration withdrew from Iraq in a way that “contributed to that instability.”
I asked Rumsfeld about leaked emails that reportedly show former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticizing Rumsfeld in messages to former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Rumsfeld deflected his response towards Powell: “Oh, Colin was an equal opportunity critic of everybody,” he says. “The two of them [Rice and Powell] were chatting back and forth, and if I were Colin Powell, I would be pretty embarrassed.”
I noted that it’s kind of tough with all the hacking going on. “It’s not tough for me,” Rumsfeld chuckles. “I never used email when I was in government. We were concerned about hacking as a result – I just didn’t do it.”
So how does he see the election shaping up? Rumsfeld can’t resist referencing his most famous trope. “You have a known known on the Democratic side,” he says. And a known unknown on Republican side,” he says. “It’s going to be a very close contest I think.”
Sounds like an unknown unknown to me.
