GOP senior statesmen continue to hold their fire on Trump
By Josh Rogin September 4 at 7:37 PM
Josh Rogin is a columnist for the Global Opinions section of The Post.
With only two months left until the presidential election, the most senior national security figures in the Republican Party are largely staying on the sidelines, even though almost all are said to privately oppose Donald Trump becoming commander in chief. Many of their more junior colleagues are calling on them to get off the bench.
Former GOP secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, George Shultz, James Baker and Henry Kissinger; former defense secretary Robert Gates; and former national security adviser Stephen Hadley are among the influential officials who have kept their powder dry as Trump has remade a Republican national security discussion they spent decades shaping into something unrecognizable.
One would think these figures, many of whom supported other candidates during the GOP primary, would publicly object to Trump’s coziness with Russia, his threatening of NATO, his openness to nuclear proliferation, his call for a ban on Muslims entering the country, his pledge to toss away the Geneva Conventions and his general rejection of America’s current role in the world.
After all, scores of Republican national security officials one or two levels below them have pledged never to support Trump, including by signing open letters to that effect. Few senior officials have done so. Among them, former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and former deputy assistant secretary of state Richard Armitage have even endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/gop-senior-statesmen-continue-to-hold-their-fire-on-trump/2016/09/04/fd0d75ee-7141-11e6-8365-b19e428a975e_story.html?utm_term=.c4fb8f7dc633&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1
