Donald Rumsfeld Endorses Trump, A Man Who Once Called Him A 'Disaster'

"I am a lot more comfortable with a known unknown, who I will support, than with a known known who is unacceptable.”
Jason Reed / Reuters

Donald Rumsfeld, President George W. Bush's former defense secretary, announced on Wednesday night that he was endorsing Donald J. Trump for president. And he said it was "not a close call."

But, really, it must have been, right?

After all, Rumsfeld was the architect of the Iraq War, a military venture that Trump likes to describe as the worst geopolitical blunder in U.S. history (never mind that he supported it). And while Trump has put the blame for that blunder at the feet of President Bush, he hasn't spared Rumsfeld some criticism.

"I mean obviously Rumsfeld was a disaster," he told CNN in 2007. Here, just watch it:

Time heals wounds, and politics produces odd pairings. So Rumsfeld's decision to endorse a man who once called him a disaster probably doesn't crack the top 10 curious moments of this campaign.

“Mrs. Clinton is a known known," he rationalized in an interview with the Daily Mail. "Donald Trump is a known unknown who's a recent entry into the equation. And I am a lot more comfortable with a known unknown, who I will support, than with a known known who is unacceptable.”

Trump reciprocated those semi-kind words with a tweet.

Editor's note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims -- 1.6 billion members of an entire religion -- from entering the U.S.

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