When Donald Trump campaigned for the White House in 2016, he promised to hire the best and brightest from the Republican establishment and the private sector to staff his administration. “I’m going to surround myself with only the best and most serious people,” he told The Washington Post in 2016. “We want top-notch professionals.”
Eight years later, on the eve of Mr. Trump’s bid to win the White House for a third time, many of these former allies and advisers are his most outspoken critics, arguing that his victory would divide the nation and threaten the U.S. They warn that it poses a threat to democracy.
Critics include former foreign affairs and national security advisers, cabinet members, chiefs of staff, attorneys general, communications staff and members of Congress.
Some of them say:
john kelly
Longest tenure as President Trump’s chief of staff
Kelly, a retired Marine general, served as President Trump’s chief of staff for nearly a year and a half starting in July 2017. He recently said on the record about his former boss: new york times Trump was a fascist who praised Hitler before him.
“Certainly the former president is in the far-right realm, certainly an authoritarian, and certainly admires dictators. That’s what he says,” Kelly said. “Therefore, he certainly falls under the general definition of a fascist.”
mick mulvaney
former chief of staff
Mulvaney served as Trump’s chief of staff for more than a year before becoming the former presidential special envoy for Northern Ireland. He publicly expressed doubts about President Trump’s ability to help Republicans win the White House in the 2024 election and resigned the day after the 2021 Capitol riot. Mulvaney said this on CNBC. “I can’t look at what happened yesterday and say I want to be a part of it in any way.” he said at that time.
“Of all the major candidates, I think he’s the Republican most likely to lose in the general election,” he told NBC News in July.
nikki haley
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
As Mr. Trump’s main challenger for the Republican presidential nomination, Ms. Haley attacked Mr. Trump as “not free,” before switching to her support at the Republican National Convention in July. “I am a strong supporter of Donald Trump,” she said.
Bill Barr
Former US Attorney General
Bill Barr, an outspoken conservative who joined the Trump administration in 2018, resigned shortly after the Justice Department found no evidence of widespread election fraud the former president claimed in 2020.
Barr likened President Trump to a “rebellious 9-year-old” and accused him of putting “his own interests and ego satisfaction above everything else, including the national interest.” Despite this, he told Fox News in April that he would vote “on the Republican ticket” in November.
mike pence
former vice president
Despite being one of Trump’s longest-serving and most loyal colleagues, Pence has refused to block Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election, calling Trump “delusional” I called it. “It’s no surprise that I’m not supporting Donald Trump this year,” he told Fox News in March.
mark esper
Former Secretary of Defense
President Trump fired Esper in November 2020, just weeks after he publicly opposed his boss’ suggestion that the military be sent to quell anti-racism protests that had erupted in many cities. . Esper also wrote in his memoir that the former president was asked if U.S. soldiers could fire on U.S. protesters.
“I don’t know if I can survive four more years under Donald Trump,” Esper told CNN in March, calling him a “threat to democracy.”
Jim Mathis
Former Secretary of Defense
Mattis, a retired general considered one of the Trump administration’s “adults,” resigned in 2018 after withdrawing troops from Syria despite the president’s objections. He refrained from publicly criticizing President Trump for two years, only to criticize Trump over his handling of anti-racism protests in 2020.
“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who doesn’t try to unite the American people and doesn’t even pretend to try to unite us. Instead, he’s trying to divide us,” Mattis said. I wrote it. one piece It was triggered by tear gas from protesters in Washington, D.C., that summer.
mark milley
Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Milley served as President Trump’s top military advisor for the final 16 months of his presidential term after serving in uniform for 44 years. According to a book by Washington Post deputy editor Bob Woodward, he warned that the former president was “a fascist to the core.” In his retirement speech in September 2023, Milley said: “We do not swear an oath to kings or queens, or to tyrants, dictators or would-be dictators.”
john bolton
Former National Security Advisor
In late 2019, President Trump fired Bolton, a hawkish national security adviser who believed in projecting American power overseas. “Mr. Trump is unfit to be president,” Bolton wrote in his recent memoir. “If his first four years were bad, the next four are going to be even worse.”
HR McMaster
Former National Security Advisor
Bolton’s predecessor, McMaster, has said he would not serve in a second Trump administration. “The president wanted advice. He also wanted flattery. He really likes being praised. In many ways, he’s addicted to praise from his political base and the people around him. Something like that,” McMaster told CBS News this summer.
fiona hill
Former Senior Director of Europe and Russia
Hill, a Russia expert who was the star witness in the 2019 Congressional impeachment hearings against Trump, spent two years in the White House.
“He’s trying to bully and intimidate everyone,” Hill said in late 2021. I’m so disappointed that people don’t recognize . . . It’s a risk to the United States. ”
Gina Haspel
Former CIA Director
The former head of the world’s most powerful spy agency resigned from his position the day before Joe Biden was sworn in as president. In comments published in the book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Rob Costa, danger, She said of Trump’s refusal to accept Biden’s victory in the 2020 election: “We’re headed for a right-wing coup. Everything is crazy. He’s acting like a six-year-old having a tantrum.”
anthony scaramucci
Former communications director
President Trump fired Scaramucci as communications director in 2017 after just 10 days. Since then, he has spent years as one of the former president’s most vocal critics. “What President Trump is doing is really bad, because his three legs are misogynist, racist and anti-immigrant,” Scaramucci told the Financial Times last week. That makes him the most un-American presidential candidate.”
Stephanie Grisham
Former White House Communications Director
Grisham served as White House communications director and press secretary to former first lady Melania Trump, who resigned after a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“He was angry that the cameras weren’t looking at him. He has no empathy, no morals, no fidelity to the truth,” Grisham said of Trump at this summer’s Democratic National Convention, where Kamala Harris supported.
paul ryan
Former Republican House Speaker
Ryan spent four years as the top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives and was Mitt Romney’s running mate in the 2012 presidential election.
He told Fox News earlier this year that Trump is “unfit for public office,” and has previously criticized him as a “narcissist” and a “jack of all trades.” . . It always makes him feel good. ”
Elaine Chao
Former Secretary of Transportation
Chao is married to Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the U.S. Senate, who resigned at the end of the Trump administration over the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“There is no doubt that your rhetoric had an impact on the situation, and that was the turning point for me,” Chao wrote in his resignation letter.
