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Colin Powell says Trump has turned 'We the People' to 'Me the President'

Colin Powell, who was the head of the State Department under President George W. Bush, added that he does not see Donald Trump being a moral leader on the world stage

By Namrata Tripathi
Published on : 04:40 PST, Oct 9, 2018
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Colin Powell says Trump has turned 'We the People' to 'Me the President'

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell slammed President Donald Trump on Sunday and said that the United States has now become 'Me the President' from 'We the People' under the Republican's presidency.

Powell, while talking on CNN's 'Fareed Zakaria, GPS' said: "My favorite three words in our Constitution is the first three words – 'We the People.' But recently it's become 'Me the President,' as opposed to 'We the People.' And you see things that should not be happening."

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks on the telephone via speakerphone with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in the Oval Office of the White House on August 27, 2018, in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks on the telephone via speakerphone with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in the Oval Office of the White House on August 27, 2018, in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)

Powell, who was the head of the State Department under President George W. Bush, added that he does not see Trump being a moral leader on the world stage: "I don't know that he can do that because right now, that is not the way he is acting."

The former Secretary of State also criticized Trump's immigration policies, his treatment of the press and the way he constantly demeans people. Powell challenged Trump's campaign slogan 'Make America Great Again' and said that he doesn't agree with it because according to him, the United States has always been great.

 

"We are great now. We always have been great," Powell said. "And so I think what we really have to do is to start changing our mode of dealing with the rest of the world and try to get a system where we are calming down, stop insulting everybody, and see if we can reach out."

The retired Army general also referred to Trump constantly calling the media "the enemy" of the citizens, and said: "How can a president of the United States get up and say that the media is the enemy of Americans? Hasn't he read the First Amendment? You're not supposed to like everything the press says or what anyone says in the First Amendment."

"And I hope the president can come to the realization that he should really stop insulting people. And I used this two years ago when I said I could not vote for him in the 2016 election — and why? He insulted everybody," Powell said.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell gestures during his address to the UN Security Council on February 5, 2003, in New York City. Powell is making a presentation attempting to convince the world that Iraq is deliberately hiding weapons of mass destruction. (Getty Images)
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell gestures during his address to the UN Security Council on February 5, 2003, in New York City. Powell is making a presentation attempting to convince the world that Iraq is deliberately hiding weapons of mass destruction. (Getty Images)

The former Secretary of State also denounced Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy which separated immigrant families and saw children being sent to camps and said that the "world is watching".

"The world is watching, and they cannot believe that we are doing things like separating mothers and children who were trying to get across the border from south of our border - immigrants," Powell said. "They can't believe that we're making such an effort to cease immigration coming into the country. It's what's kept us alive."

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