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Bush describes GOP as 'isolationist, protectionist and, to a certain extent, nativist'
CNN
Former President George W. Bush on Tuesday described the Republican Party as "isolationist, protectionist and, to a certain extent, nativist," his strongest and most direct criticism yet against his own party since leaving office in 2009.
Bush's comments are notable not only because he's a former Republican president, but he has largely kept quiet on politics since he left Washington. He has recently written about the need for a gentler approach to immigration in contrast to much of the hardline rhetoric that dominates the current GOP in the post-Trump era, but he has typically avoided directly criticizing the party. Asked on Tuesday how he would describe the Republican Party as he sees it today, Bush told NBC's Hoda Kotb on the "Today" show, "I would describe it as isolationist, protectionist and, to a certain extent, nativist."
The retired Air Force general announced as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Donald Trump after the abrupt Friday night firing of his predecessor is a respected career F-16 pilot who is described by current and former officials who served with him as a professional with a “strong moral center.”
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Over the past 10 days, Vice President JD Vance put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on notice, rattled the confidence of century-old allies in Western Europe during his first foreign trip, decamped to Capitol Hill to help in delicate budget talks and delivered a spirited defense of the Trump administration’s first month to a gathering of conservatives outside the nation’s capital.