Trump critical of late Secretary of State Powell, says he was a 'classic RINO'

Former President Trump on Tuesday released a statement highly critical of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, calling him a “classic RINO,” or Republican in Name Only.

“He was a classic RINO, if even that, always being the first to attack other Republicans," Trump wrote about Powell, who died Monday of complications from a COVID-19 infection.

Powell, who served as Secretary of State for one Bush administration and as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in an earlier one, later endorsed for president Democrats Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.

Trump additionally offered a characteristically backhanded compliment to what he has come to refer to as the “fake news media."

The former president pointed out that Powell, as secretary of state under GOP President George W. Bush, made a case in 2003 before the United Nations for the administration's rationale in invading Iraq, based upon intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program that later proved faulty.

Powell was also appointed chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff by President George H.W. Bush.

"Wonderful to see Colin Powell, who made big mistakes on Iraq and famously, so-called weapons of mass destruction, be treated in death so beautifully by the Fake News Media,” Trump also wrote. "Hope that happens to me someday. He made plenty of mistakes, but anyway, may he rest in peace."