--- title: Colin Powell Calls Donald Trump ‘National Disgrace’ in Email description: Colin Powell called Donald Trump a “national disgrace” who is “in the process of destroying himself” in a hacked and leaked email. canonical: https://time.com/4492739/colin-powell-donald-trump-email/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-14T11:58:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:49.096Z article:section: Politics og:title: Colin Powell Calls Donald Trump a ‘National Disgrace’ in Hacked Email og:description: Powell also said Trump is "in the process of destroying himself” og:url: https://time.com/4492739/colin-powell-donald-trump-email/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2aea091d6de8d429/6988a5e797cdff8f456adc81/colin-powell-hacked-emails-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Meet the Press - Season 68 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Colin Powell Calls Donald Trump a ‘National Disgrace’ in Hacked Email twitter:description: Powell also said Trump is "in the process of destroying himself” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2aea091d6de8d429/6988a5e797cdff8f456adc81/colin-powell-hacked-emails-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Colin Powell Calls Donald Trump a ‘National Disgrace’ in Hacked Email > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Sep 14, 2016 11:58 AM UTC  Colin Powell appears on "Meet the Press" in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 6, 2015. Colin Powell appears on "Meet the Press" in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 6, 2015. NBC NewsWire—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Sep 14, 2016 11:58 AM UTC [Colin Powell called Donald Trump a “national disgrace”](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/colin-powell-calls-trump-national-disgrace-hacked-emails-n648011) who is “in the process of destroying himself” in an email to a former aide that has been hacked and leaked online. The former Secretary of State, who led the State Department under Republican President George W. Bush, confirmed the emails were authentic to NBC News, adding that “the hackers have a lot more.” Powell made the comments about Trump in an email to a former aide on June 17, according to [BuzzFeed News](https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/colin-powell-calls-trump-national-disgrace-in-personal-email?utm%5Fterm=.ogo2VLrRl#.tfrzrDROA), which first reported the contents of the correspondence. In that email, Powell also blasted the Republican presidential nominee as an “international pariah” and said there was “no need” for Democrats to “attack him” because he was “in the process of destroying himself.” Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. This is not the first time Powell has been indirectly pulled into the 2016 presidential election. Last month, Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton reportedly told FBI officials that [Powell advised her to use a personal email account](http://time.com/4460976/colin-powell-hillary-clinton-email/) while she was Secretary of State. \[[_NBC_](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/colin-powell-calls-trump-national-disgrace-hacked-emails-n648011)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4492739/colin-powell-donald-trump-email/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4492739/colin-powell-donald-trump-email/"},"headline":"Colin Powell Calls Donald Trump a ‘National Disgrace’ in Hacked Email","datePublished":"2016-09-14T11:58:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:44:49.096Z","description":"Powell also said Trump is \"in the process of destroying himself”","url":"https://time.com/4492739/colin-powell-donald-trump-email/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2aea091d6de8d429/6988a5e797cdff8f456adc81/colin-powell-hacked-emails-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2aea091d6de8d429/6988a5e797cdff8f456adc81/colin-powell-hacked-emails-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Meet the Press - Season 68","caption":"Colin Powell appears on \"Meet the Press\" in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 6, 2015.","creditText":"NBC NewsWire—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4492739/colin-powell-donald-trump-email/","name":"Colin Powell Calls Donald Trump a ‘National Disgrace’ in Hacked Email"}}]}] ```