Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said many of Donald Trump’s foreign policy positions are unsettling.
“I worry a little bit about his admiration for [Russian President] Vladimir Putin,” Gates told CBS in an interview aired Sunday. “You can’t have a trade war with China,” which if Trump’s China rhetoric became policy could happen, he warned.
Gates said Trump’s ego gives him pause.
“He seems to think he has all the answers and he doesn’t need any advice from staff,” Gates observed. “He doesn’t really feel the need to surround himself with informed advisers.”
Although the commanders-in-chief he served were very different men, they had one thing in common: a willingness to listen to advice and change their minds, Gates said, questioning whether Trump is capable of being open minded.
Gates said serving under Trump would be “inconceivable.”
“I learned a long time ago never to say ‘never,’ but let’s just say that that would be inconceivable to me,” Gates said when asked if he would serve in a Trump cabinet.
When pressed further, Gates said he would have to interview whoever wins in November before agreeing to join another administration. Gates served under Presidents Carter, Reagan, H.W. Bush, W. Bush and Obama.
“I think there would have to be a conversation with the candidate to see — when president-elect Obama asked me to stay on, we did something very unusual, we had a secret meeting at the firehouse at Reagan [National] Airport,” Gates recounted. “I had sent him 10 questions, starting with, ‘why do you think you can trust me?'” Gates said.
“I want to see some evidence that a person can be trusted with the lives of those young people,” who join the military, Gates said about what would be a key point in his decision-making process.
