Colin Powell on Trump: It's now "me the president" instead of "we the people"



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Former state secretaries Madeline Albright and Colin Powell criticized President Donald Trump's treatment of US foreign relations in an interview broadcast Sunday on CNN.

Powell, who served under George W. Bush's presidency from 2001 to 2005, said Trump was not a moral leader.


"My three favorite words in our Constitution are the first three words:" We, the people, "said Powell. But recently he became "Me the President", as opposed to "We, the people". And you see things that should not happen. "

Powell added: "I hope the president will be able to realize that he really needs to stop insulting people … I do not think that's what should be done by a person." President of the United States".

Albright, who served under President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2001, criticized what she called Trump's "kinship" with Russian President Vladimir Putin.


"I really think he sees a kind of kinship with Putin, and the Russians are very serious about undermining our democracy and separating us from our allies," said Albright. "And I think in many ways, Trump is almost a present for Putin, who is trying to explain why we should deal with these Europeans or why should we have something to do with it? NATO. "

When asked in the CNN program "Fareed Zakaria GPS" if she had ever seen another president say things that contradict the policy of his administration towards another country, as Trump did with Russia, Albright answered no.

"And the decision-making process just does not work," said Albright. "The president goes away and then, someone says," He meant … ".



Albright compared US and Allied cooperation on sanctions against Russia with Trump's statements on Putin and Russia.

In the Sunday interview, Powell said that countries witnessing the events at the southern border "can not believe" that the United States has policies that result in the separation of undocumented immigrant families.

"The whole world is watching, and they can not believe we are separating, for example, mothers and children trying to cross the southern border of our border – immigrants," Powell said. "They can not believe that we are making such an effort to prevent immigration from entering the country. That's what kept us alive."


Nearly 3,000 children have been separated from their parents at the border since April as part of the Trump administration's efforts to fight illegal immigration and deter potential crossings. Although Trump ended the program by decree in June, some 13,000 children are still in US detention centers and the number of their releases has dropped.

Powell also said that the United States must "speak firmly" to Russia, but he also warned that Putin had given pride to Russia after the loss of the cold war.

"And we should take that into account," said Powell. "We should also, I think, not try to make him an enemy, but the Pentagon is busy thinking about it and considering China as an enemy."

"We are thinking too much about conflictual relations as opposed to diplomatic relations," Powell said. "When you contact someone, tell them what you need to have and tell them what you think it hurts – now, let's talk about it, see if we can solve the problems."

Powell added, "Let's find ways to talk and engage ourselves, recognizing that not everyone is like the United States."

The two also criticized Trump's attacks on US institutions, with Albright drawing a parallel with dictatorships.

"There are a lot of … steps that do not look great at the time," said Albright. "But if you put them all together, they go more and more in a direction where there is no respect for the institutions, where we call the press the people's enemy, where the president thinks that he is above the law and we are not engaged enough in a political activity in terms of people who really work and do something about it ".

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