Posted on 06/14/2020 10:37:49 AM PDT by RandFan
Former Defense Secretary Michael Gates on Sunday offered measured support for President Trump, noting that "at least" the president hasn't started a war and has funded the military.
NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd asked Gates if his assessment of Trump has changed since 2016 when he said Trump, “is stubbornly uninformed about the world and how to lead our country” and “temperamentally unsuited to lead our men and women in uniform.”
“I would say this Chuck, first of all, unlike his three predecessors, and I write about this in the book, at least he hasn’t started any new wars, and he has robustly funded the military,” Gates responded.
Gates was appointed by former President George W. Bush and also served under former President Obama. His new book, “Exercise of Power: American Failures, Successes, and a New Path Forward in the Post-Cold War World,” will be released this week.
Gates also said he supported Trump’s “outreach” to North Korea.
“It hasn't come to anything but I thought that was a bold move and everything else had failed in the previous 25 years,” he added. “But there’s also the other side of the coin in terms of some of the things he says. His treatment and words about military people and military heroes like John McCain that I admire a lot that are really troublesome.”
But Gates also said Trump uses the military as a “prop” to a larger extent than his predecessors in the Oval Office.
“You know, all the presidents that I worked for liked to use the military as a prop. I think this president's probably taken that to a new level,” Gates said. “But, but the military has to be very sensitive about being exploited in that way.”
His comments followed Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley’s statement last week voicing regret for participating in President Trump’s photo-op outside St. John’s Episcopal Church last week.
Gates said he thinks Milley “really wrestled” with how to respond to the situation.
“I've known Mark Milley for a long time and he's a man of great integrity, takes his responsibilities as an apolitical military officer very seriously,” Gates said. “I think the important thing was that he made the statement, made it with all sincerity and frankly, I think that, plus his statement, written statement to senior commanders around the world about the apolitical nature of the American military sent a powerful signal and reemphasized the importance of the military staying out of politics and frankly, not getting used.”
Milley was photographed in uniform walking with Trump to the church, shortly after protesters near the White House were forcibly cleared from Lafayette Square by federal law enforcement and National Guardsmen.
Milley said he regrets participating in the photo-op during a recorded message that aired at the graduation of the National Defense University last week.
“I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics,” he said.
Very faint praise.
The military did an excellent job defeating ISIS under Trump.
He can go for himself !
With Former and current leaders like this who needs foreign enemies?
Pretty sure his name is Robert Gates
And people like Bolton sure tried to get him into one!
Yeah, that’s his REAL crime, isn’t it?
like, that is trump’s primary job. keep the nation safe from threats, peacefully if possible.
According to Wikipedia, his middle name is Michael. However I didn’t see any previous news stories that referred to him as Michael Gates. Amazing how quickly people can be forgotten.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gates
That is one of the reasons the globalists hate him so much.
Zackly. And their response is, “Okay. You won’t start a war overseas? We’ll start one in your back yard.”
Isn’t this the Michael Gates who opened up adult leadership positions in scouting to homosexual males which has resulted in numerous lawsuits against the Boy Scouts of America and the filing of bankruptcy protections by that organization? Why are we bothering to listen to that moron?
Isn’t this the Michael Gates who opened up adult leadership positions in scouting to homosexual males which has resulted in numerous lawsuits against the Boy Scouts of America and the filing of bankruptcy protections by that organization? Why are we bothering to listen to that moron?
Former Defense Secretary Michael Gates
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should read, “Robert Gates“
By the 4th year of his reign, Obama was well on his way to destroying Libya and Syria, causing the largest refugee crisis in Europe since WWII and nearly causing a genocide in Egypt.
At this point, nothing Trump can do will reach Obama’s level of evil.
Bushies want their wars.
[Pretty sure his name is Robert Gates]
Our military can't win a war, can't defend us from the Chinese (because the Chinese fund democrat desires just like Arabs do). We fund a military that couldn't get to Benghazi from Italy in the time a person could hop on a plane in Tampa and FLY commercial to Benghazi with time to spare to save Americans slaughtered there. Today the military whores for democrats, gives speeches for $5,000 a minute with their contractors in Arab hellholes (money in exchange for the blood of our young and American treasure) and the press doesn't give a damn. They get a pass because they're corrupted. Same uniforms - nothing in them... the brass sucks.
We declared war on China on May 20th.
'Course, demonicRATS love their wars, too, so there may have been a little reverse psychology going on there.
Maybe that's what The Bible means when it says we should be wise as serpents.
Matthew 10:16 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.
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