NYT Op-Ed: "It Is Stupidity, Not Hypocrisy, That Troubles Us"
Criticism: "They Are Destroying, Not Reinventing, Government"
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton strongly criticized President Donald Trump’s policies, describing them as “dumb.”
On the same day, Clinton contributed an article titled “How Much Dumber Will This Get?” to the American daily The New York Times (NYT).
She emphasized that when the military’s “hard power” is combined with diplomacy, development aid, and economic and cultural influence as “soft power,” the United States becomes a superpower, and fiercely attacked President Trump’s approach as “dumb power.”
Clinton referred to the recent leak of war plans by senior security officials in the Trump administration discussed in private messengers, saying, “What troubles us is not hypocrisy but stupidity.”
Earlier, reports emerged that senior security officials in the Trump administration discussed war plans in private messenger chat rooms and leaked them, sparking fierce controversy.
Clinton also pointed out as “dumb acts” the firing of hundreds of federal employees who were responsible for protecting U.S. nuclear weapons and the halting of efforts to fight epidemics amid the spread of the Ebola virus in Africa.
Regarding the military, she quoted a former senior intelligence official saying, “We are shooting ourselves in the head, not the foot,” and said that President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seem to be focused on showy, formal fights rather than preparing to fight U.S. adversaries.
She continued, “As a former Secretary of State, I was appalled by the Trump administration’s plans to close U.S. embassies and consulates, fire diplomats, and dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID),” diagnosing that soft power is also being destroyed.
Clinton stressed, “Diplomacy is cost-effective, and preventing war is cheaper than fighting.”
She called the Trump administration’s approach a “slash-and-burn” method of cutting down and burning everything, criticizing, “They are not reinventing government; they are destroying it.”
Clinton added, “As a businessman, President Trump bankrupted Atlantic City casinos. Now he is gambling with U.S. national security.”
Clinton retired from politics after losing the 2016 presidential election to President Trump.
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