Donald Trump said Friday he isn’t a “big fan” of former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, after Gates criticized the GOP nominee on Thursday.
Trump said on MSNBC Friday that Gates is one of the people who helped get the United States into trouble overseas over the last decade.
“Well, the comments are wrong because he knows nothing about me. He knows nothing about what I said,” Trump said. “I’m not a big fan of his, by the way, because you take a look at two things. Look at where our country is with years of him being involved. We are a mess, number one.”
“I know he has a great reputation and all of that. All of these guys have a great reputation,” Trump added. “They have been doing this stuff for 15 years, and look where our country is. We need a new group with better thinking.”
Gates criticized Trump for saying Japan and South Korea should have nuclear weapons so they can protect themselves. Trump has also said that while he’d like to continue keeping troops in the two countries, it’s “costing us a fortune.”
“Bob Gates, who I don’t know at all, but Bob Gates has no idea. See, they’re misrepresenting and he’s misrepresenting,” Trump said.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski said Gates is one “the greatest foreign policy minds in history,” but Trump rejected that.
“Oh really? Why? Because we’re doing so well? You think we’re doing well with his foreign policy?” Trump said.
Trump also hit the former defense secretary for speaking ill of the Obama administration soon after leaving his post at the Department of Defense in a book. He said he “doesn’t like the kinds of guys who write books and say bad about everybody they work for.”
During his Thursday interview, Gates was critical of both Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who he served with during the early years of the Obama administration. But Gates had critiques for both parties.
“One of the things that troubles me and one of the reasons, frankly, I’m speaking out a little bit is that on the Democrats’ side, you wouldn’t know we have a foreign policy because there’s been no discussion really at all about national security policies on the side of the Democrats,” Gates said. “And on the Republican side, pretty much what you hear is uninformed bluster and threats. So the American people at this stage in the campaign have no idea what either one of these front-runners would do if they were elected president.”
