This series lists prominent Republicans, Trump appointees and executives of previous Republican presidencies now openly saying Orange Man bad. We show why they say this.
This is part 36. For earlier episodes, click on Alan Austin, above, and scroll down the page. Easy.
Click on the name for the source of the quote.
217. Mark Salter, veteran Republican strategist, former chief of staff to presidential candidate John McCain:
“Trump is who he is. He can’t comprehend anything beyond his own promotion, his own bottom line, his own grift ... Trump doesn’t think about this country for one minute. The man who said ‘Only I can fix it’ shifts the blame, shirks his responsibility, the most abysmally inept leadership.” [4 September, 2020]
218. Carlos Gutierrez, secretary of commerce under President George W. Bush:
“That's the danger here – this trade war is being combined with a tremendous amount of emotion and antagonism. Most of our companies at a minimum have lost market share. And then the question is, will they ever regain it? Now is when every company needs their own foreign policy because US government's foreign policy is not helping at all.” [24 August, 2019]
219. Brian Davidson, conservative ex-Republican in Illinois:
“One. Trump has totally destroyed conservatism, particularly fiscal conservatism. The debt load that he has piled on this country pre-coronavirus would make Barack Obama blush. Two. Nearly every top aide and business associate he has dealt with over 30 to 40 years comes away from Trump with one simple description – he’s a moron.” [September, 2020]
220.Greg from Pennsylvania, registered Republican since Nixon:
“Being in the financial industry 25 years ago, I was aware of his misdeeds. I knew 25 years ago that Donald Trump was not just stupid, but mean. What’s new to me in his term is that he is not just stupid and mean, he is cruel and he’s uneducated. He is a danger to this country. He disregards laws. This man is a criminal.” [September 2020]
221. Nicholas Rostow, special assistant to Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush, and legal advisor to the US mission at the United Nations:
“ One of the drawbacks of Trump’s management style is the great uncertainty that it creates, but I don’t see that changing ... New York is full of people who were experts in their trade who have never been paid by this man and bankers who will not lend him money. There is nothing unusual about his behaviour as president compared to his behaviour before he became president.” [23 October, 2019]
And from the archives:
222. Maria Comella, aide to Republican governor of New Jersey Chris Christie:
"Donald Trump has been a demagogue this whole time, preying on people's anxieties with loose information and salacious rhetoric, drumming up fear and hatred of the 'other’. It may make him media savvy, but it doesn't make him qualified to be president." [3 August, 2016]
223. Donald P. Gregg, national security adviser to George W H Bush:
“We now have a person at the top of the Republican ticket who I believe is dangerous, doesn’t understand the complex world we live in, doesn’t care to, and is without any moral or international philosophy.” [25 September 2016]
224. Louis Wade Sullivan, secretary of health and human services under George W Bush:
“He [Trump] has impressed me as someone who is unstable, who regularly changes his mind, who has not articulated a clear underpinning for the policies that he has espoused. His statements against Mexicans I find repulsive; the same of his statements toward Muslims and his ridicule of women.” [7 September, 2016]
To be continued …