The former President Donald Trump has broken his silence about the death of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who passed away yesterday at the age of 84 after a battle with COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated against the virus.

“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. Hope that happens to me someday,” Trump said in a statement obtained by The Hill.

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Trump went on to attack Powell as “a classic RINO, if even that, always being the first to attack other Republicans. He made plenty of mistakes, but anyway, may he rest in peace!”

Powell had long been a critic of Trump and defied Republicans to endorse Joe Biden in 2020.

“Today, we are a country divided, and we have a president doing everything in his power to make it that way and keep us that way,” Powell said at the Democratic National Convention in August of 2020. “What a difference it will make to have a president who unites us, who restores our strength and our soul.”

After the Capitol riot that took place on January 6, Powell said that he could “no longer call myself a fellow Republican.”

“I do not know how he was able to attract all of these people,” he said at the time, referring to Trump. “They should have known better, but they were so taken by their political standing and how none of them wanted to put themselves at political risk. They would not stand up and tell the truth or stand up and criticize him, or criticize others.”

Clearly, there was no love lost between Trump and Powell, whose family announced his passing yesterday.

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“He was fully vaccinated,” Powell’s family said in a statement, according to Reuters. “We want to thank the medical staff at Walter Reed National Medical Center for their caring treatment. We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather, and a great American.”

Powell was the first black Secretary of State, serving in that role in the administration of former President George W. Bush, who paid tribute to Powell in the wake of his death.

“Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of Colin Powell,” he said, according to Fox News. “He was highly respected at home and abroad. And most important, Colin was a family man and a friend. Laura and I send Alma and their children our sincere condolences as they remember the life of a great man.”

Bush’s former Vice President Dick Cheney, who also is not a fan of Trump, paid tribute to Powell as well, saying that he was “deeply saddened to learn that America has lost a leader and a statesman.”

Regardless of what your opinion on Powell is, the reaction to his death serves as a reminder of just how divided the Republican Party, and America at large, is at this moment in time.

This piece originally appeared in RobManess.com and is used by permission.

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