Former Secretaries of State Madeline Albright and Colin Powell blasted President Donald Trump in a CNN interview over his foreign relations policy, calling for stricter actions on Russia and an end to family separations.
Responding to a question by host Fareed Zakaria, Albright noted she had never seen a U.S. president make comments contradicting those of his administration and its foreign policy as is the case with President Trump.
“And the decision-making process simply does not work. The president goes and does his own thing, then somebody says, ‘He meant to say’…” she added. “I do think that he does see some kind of kinship with Putin, and the Russians are trying very hard to undermine our democracy and to separate us from our allies.”
Albright, who served under President Bill Clinton, continued her attack of Trump, saying, “And I think in many ways Trump is almost a gift to Putin in terms of trying to explain why should we deal with those Europeans or why should we have anything to do with NATO.”
Powell, on the other hand, aimed his criticism on border policies, saying countries witnessing the developments at the U.S.-Mexico border “cannot believe” the Trump administration is implementing policies which result in the separation of immigrant families.
“The world is watching, and they cannot believe that we are doing things like separating mothers and children who were trying to get across the border from south of our border — immigrants,” he remarked. “They can’t believe that we’re making such an effort to cease immigration coming into the country. It’s what’s kept us alive.”
Concerning Russia, Powell noted that the United States should not “try to make” Putin an enemy, but added that the Pentagon is doing exactly that, not thinking about diplomatic relations with Russia which it sees as an adversary. He further pointed out that improving diplomatic relations inevitably yields positive results.
The two also criticized Trump’s attacks on U.S. institutions, with Albright even drawing parallels with dictatorships. She said the President had “no respect for institutions,” called the press “the enemy of the people” and believed he was above the law.
Powell also expressed disappointment in Trump’s decision to withdraw from important international agreements and alliances that keep anti-democratic nations in check.
“The President goes to Europe to a NATO meeting, but he starts out by insulting some of the other participants, our allies. Take a hard look at yourself, and see what we are doing to try to keep these forces in check and put America back in the middle of all this as opposed to being sort of a reluctant player and trying to pull out of agreements rather than helping to make new agreements.”
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