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The four former living presidents of the United States, the former defense secretary and 'star' of the first two years of the Donald Trump government, the former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the former chief of staff, and a senator The Republican Party have harshly attacked the current president's policy to handle the protests - sometimes violent and accompanied by widespread looting - triggered after the death of African-American George Floyd at the hands of white policeman Derek Chauvin , on May 25.

"We need a state that is as good as its citizens, and we deserve better than this" ( Jimmy Carter , president from 1976 to 1980). "People who have power must go ahead, answer questions, and make more and more people be 'us' and fewer and fewer people be 'them'" ( Bill Clinton , president from 1992 to 2000). "There is a better path: the path of the best: empathy, shared commitment, determined action, and peace based on justice. I trust that Americans, united, will be able to find that path" ( George W. Bush , president from 2000 to 2008). "This is not deciding between this and that. To achieve change, you have to make people in power feel uncomfortable, and translate that into practical solutions and laws" ( Barack Obama , president from 2008 to 2016).

Obama says he feels 'optimistic' when he looks at what's happening in the U.S. THE WORLD

Those are the phrases of the 'Club of Presidents' - as the former heads of state and government are known in the United States - against Donald Trump for the death of Floyd, whose autopsy has revealed that he had a coronavirus, although he did not die from that disease , but by suffocation, and whose death continues to provoke massive protests in the US, although in the last two days these have been mostly peaceful and with less looting.

The statements of the former presidents have institutional weight, as does the admission by giants of the business world as the leaders of new technologies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Uber and Lyft, or the largest bank in the US, JP Morgan that the US has continues to practice racial discrimination. But they are not very relevant in the electoral field. The Trump base firmly believes that the president is the enemy of the establishment , and that all those who criticize him are sold. Even the fact that Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski has claimed she is not sure she will support the president's re-election in November has little weight. Murkowski represents Alaska, a state where Trump is going to win.

But there are some claims that may have a more direct impact on Trump supporters. Among them, the condemnation, in the magazine 'The Atlantic', of the president's policies carried out by the former chief of staff, Admiral Mike Mullen . And, above all, that of the four-star general and Defense Secretary James Mattis , who enjoys immense prestige among the Trump voter base, who has accused the president of being a danger to the Constitution, and has compared the tone divisive of its rhetoric to that of Nazi Germany . Mattis's claims carry weight, because Trump has always fully identified with the military. And now, the biggest star of the US Armed Forces has turned against him. Although Trump voters are not going to abandon him or even if Mattis criticizes him, for them it is as if the chosen one of the 'Trumpism' had committed apostasy. If even Mattis criticizes Trump, who will be next? Ivanka?

It is true that Mattis had left the Government in 2019 due to his opposition to the president on the withdrawal from Syria, and that relations between the two had gone from being cordial to non-existent. But the caliber of his attacks - like Mullen's, in 'The Atlantic,' which is owned by Steve Jobs' widow , Laurene Powell - is enormous. The general comes to compare Trump's rhetoric with that of Nazi Germany, stating that "the instructions transmitted to our soldiers before the Normandy Landing reminded them that " the Nazi slogan to defeat us was 'Divide and conquer'. The American response is "Union is strength." We must achieve unity to overcome this crisis, and trust that we are better than our politicians. "

The general even declares his support for the protesters by stating that "the words 'Equal Facing Justice' are engraved on the frontispiece of the Supreme Court. That is precisely what the protesters are demanding. We must not be distracted because a few of them violate the law, "and states that Trump's decision to use the Army to quell protests in the country's capital, Washington, is" to violate the constitutional rights of his fellow citizens. "

Trump has reacted by attacking Mattis on Twitter and saying that he kicked him out of office, and the White House has stated that "the general does not know what is happening in the cities," in a new effort by the president to create a division between the areas. rural, where their vote is concentrated, and urban centers, which are Democrats. A few hours later, another Marine general, John Kelly - former head of the US Southern Command, who oversees Central and South America, and former Trump chief of staff until a year and a half ago - supported Mattis and denied that he the president would have thrown out. Instead, according to Kelly, Mattis resigned.

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