Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says Donald Trump is "not a Republican,'' nor has the Republican billionaire real-estate tycoon and GOP presidential candidate ever been part of "any philosophical or any governmental effort."
"He's not a Republican, he's not a Republican leader. I mean he's never led anything," Hagel said in an interview with The Harvard Crimson student newspaper.
"I mean Donald Trump is a product of the environment. He is an instrument and a voice of the tremendous, deep-seated discontent and anger in this country with politics, with Washington, and with government.
"He didn't lead that movement. He was the voice. So, he's never been involved in any philosophical or any governmental effort on anything."
Hagel, who served as defense chief under President Barack Obama from 2013-2015, was a Republican senator representing Nebraska from 1997-2009 and is now a visiting fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics, also called the GOP "rudderless" and "leaderless."
"This is going to be awhile before a new Republican Party center of gravity forms, and I think it's going to go right into the next presidential election before we see any kind of cohesion. And I'm not sure you're even going to see it then," he said.
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