UNCATEGORIZED Bush’s Defense Secretary: Delusional Trump Has No Idea What He’s Talking About
ByJames DeVinnePosted on May 1, 2016

Donald Trump’s feeble attempt at an intelligently-sounding foreign policy speech last week has been recognized across ideological lines as the almost incomprehensible stage-managed populist spectacle that it was. Today, however, the presumptive Republican nominee received scathing criticism from a truly experienced foreign policy hand, the Republican former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

Speaking on ABC’s The Week Sunday morning, Gates slammed the hypocrisy and contradictions that defined Trump’s somber, teleprompted speech:

I think based on the speech you’d have somebody who doesn’t understand the difference between a business negotiation and a negotiation with sovereign powers. For example, he, on the one hand, says we need to be a more reliable ally to our friends. And then in the next breath he basically says we’re going to rip up all those burden-sharing agreements that we’ve had over the decades with them and make them go their own way if they don’t pay for everything

Gates, who has worked under every president since Jimmy Carter and is widely considered one of the most knowledgeable and influential foreign policy minds in the nation, went on to denounce Trump on a more fundamental level, taking aim at his arrogance and narcissism:

One of the things that worries me is that he doesn’t appear to listen to people. He believes that he has all the answers, that he’s the smartest man in the room. And I’ve worked for some very different presidents… one of the things they all had in common was a willingness to listen to people who had experience, and then make their own independent judgment. Now, they’ve gone in different directions but they never assumed they had all the answers, and that’s one of the things that troubles me.

To be sure, Trump’s persona is that of a headstrong egomaniac who, certainly in foreign policy, is far out of his depth. His speech on Wednesday, riddled as it was with contradiction and obfuscation, came off as little more than a cynical populist play to mask his utter cluelessness and lack of direction with strident rhetoric and buoyant jingoism.

Besides his paradoxical rhetoric about providing more support to our allies while also insuring they pay their “fair share,” he excoriated President Obama’s failure to launch a war in Syria while condemning his the interventions in Iraq and Libya in the next breath; frequently trotted out his new slogan “America First” to praise the American role in World War II despite the fact that the 1940s America First movement, and indeed the relative isolationism that he is now peddling, opposed American entry into the war; and insisted that “war and aggression will not be [his] first instinct” while praising the nuclear bombing of Japan and stating that he would consider nuking Europe.

Foreign policy veterans from across the political spectrum have criticized Trump’s haphazard and ignorant approach to world affairs, with many saying that they would refuse to work in his administration. It is, however, particularly refreshing to see a Republican expert like Robert Gates, who has even been mentioned as a possible running mate for the Donald, take a stand for reason and dignity over rhetoric. If Trump’s foreign policy speech was a pathetic attempt to sound presidential, it failed miserably, leaving viewers with the sense that he lacks even the most basic understanding of how the world works. To put such a man in the White House would represent a danger to America and to the

Cowboymilt-I find it ironic that those who have been in politics all of their adult lives criticize a man for giving a foreign policy speech that is not perfect or up to their standards. Don't know who wrote the speech but it was somewhat disconnected because he tried to cover too many points in a single speech. Were he a professional politician, the same material would have required three or four speeches each of which would have been designed to make the speaker look good and increase his/her time in front of the cameras. This was Trump's first foreign policy speech and I did not have any problem understanding what he meant. I can accept a less than perfect speech as opposed to the disastrous foreign policy, or lack thereof, such as we have now. You can bet that Trump would not have allowed Iran access to 150billion under any circumstance. Also, Trump, who watches the bottom line in the conduct of business ,will not allow the USA to continue to be fleeced because that his how it has been done in the past. I have great respect for Mr. Gates, but his performance was not always stellar and without flaws. Trump has plenty of time to get up to speed on government functions. The same people who entrusted the Security of the Country and gave the top job to a Community Organizer who never held a private sector job worry about the capabilities of a successful businessman who has enterprises ,and is well known ,all over the world ?? This is nothing more than establishment BS and they chose Gates to deliver the message. If elected, Trump will be more successful in the conduct of foreign policy and other government functions than Hillary or Bernie could ever hope to be. The man has a track record while they merely left tracks. Good Luck America !!!

You along with a whole bunch of stupid people put Obama, The Executive Anus, in power who turned out to be the worst POTUS our Nation has ever had. The Anus has never listened to anyone but the PERVERTED LEFT WHO NOW, AND HAS FOR YEARS, COMPLETELY CONTROLLLED THE DUMMYCRATIC PARTY. Even the Trump negatives don't hurt because he is one thousand times a better choice than anything the perverted left communist controlled Dummycratic party can ""EVER"" offer. I have always hilt my nose when voting and so should you. You will never get a perfect POTUS and it is stupid to think so. Vote for the one that just might do the best job for our Nation. Don't do like the perverted left and always vote for free goodies that hard working taxpaying citizens have to pay for.

NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, TRUMPITY FOLLOWERS WILL NEVER BE AS MENTALLY ILL STUPID AS THE PERVERTED LEFT!!!!!!

I just watched the first 55 minutes of that video and found not one thing I hadn't known before. I bet that not one of our left leaners here has ever watched even one minute of it and not turned it off knowing that they were going to find out things they didn't want to know. I am very sure that I could list a long list of names and not one of them has ever taken a chance at watching that thing. It is my second time around with it and I still nearly get ill all over my keyboard when I watch any of it. We have all this stuff about the liar of the Clinton house and nothing like that about Trump, just left leaning slop and trash about him.