Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is holding back on his criticism of President Donald Trump.
During an interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press” on Sunday, Gates was asked about his criticism of Trump from 2016 when he said Trump was “stubbornly uninformed about the world and how to lead our country.”
Asked if his assessment had changed, Gates said, “I would say this Chuck, first of all, unlike his three predecessors, and I write about this in the book, at least he hasn’t started any new wars, and he has robustly funded the military.”
Additionally, Gates said he supports some of Trump’s foreign policy, including his outreach to North Korea.
“I supported his outreach to North Korea — it hasn’t come to anything — but I thought it was a bold move when everything else had failed,” Gates said.
“I thought his challenging China was about time,” he added.
However, Gates noted that ” there’s also the other side of the coin in terms of some of the things he says.”
“His treatment and words about military people and military heroes like John McCain that I admire a lot that are really troublesome,” he added.
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When asked if Trump’s character “trumps policy” when it comes to who he would support in the presidential election, Gates said, “Well I think that’s going to be up to the voters.”
Additionally, Gates was asked if former Vice President Joe Biden’s (D) policies would make it hard to support the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
“I think the important thing is the quality of his character is important,” he said, adding, “I have a lot of policy disagreements frankly with the former vice president, but I think one of the things that people will be weighing this fall is probably the character of the two contestants.”
