How Henry Kissinger Felt About Donald Trump

Although there were some elements of Donald Trump’s presidency that Kissinger agreed with and even supported, the former Secretary of State told PBS’ Judy Woodruff that the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, was unforgivable. “For an American president to challenge the constitutional system and to try to overthrow the Constitution is a grave matter,” he said. 

Kissinger, who fled Nazi Germany with his family just months before Kristallnacht in 1938, has long been a proponent of bipartisan cooperation and democracy. In 2016, Kissinger and former Secretary of State George Shultz announced they would not be endorsing any candidates in the presidential election, instead choosing to remain “dedicated to fostering a bipartisan foreign policy, and we will devote ourselves to this effort now and after the election,” per CNN.

The Bavarian-born politician also butted heads with former President Donald Trump over his infamous Muslim travel ban. Before Trump became the official Republican nominee for the 2016 election, Kissinger told Fox Business News in May of that year he would push Trump to avoid excluding an entire group so hastily, The Hil reports.