Fmr DHS Sec Jeh Johnson: Trump ‘Has the Potential to Be a Great President’

Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” former Obama administration Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said that although he was “concerned” about President Donald Trump’s tweets, he believed Trump has the potential to be a “great president.”

“I actually believe that Donald Trump — and I told him this when I met with him in December,” he said. “I actually believe Donald Trump has the potential to be a great president in sort of the Nixon goes to China way or Reagan goes to the Soviet Union way. If he can find a way to rein in some of — some of the more unhealthy impulses, listen to his staff, bring on a full complement of political appointees who will help him govern.”

“And I’m very concerned about the tweets, obviously,” Johnson continued. “And very concerned about the direction we’re taking in a lot of — in a lot of national security areas. I’m concerned that we’re — when it comes to Homeland Security, we may be fighting the last war. We may be responding to the terrorist attack of ten years ago versus the next one. I used to tell my people, don’t respond to the last terrorist attack, prepare for the next one. And given where we are right now with the current threat environment, we need to focus on home-grown, home-born violent extremist, which is something we did a lot of in the last administration.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

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