--- 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: 2026-10-07T06:46:47.192Z 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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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=3143cfb2-1e79-4c27-84cc-b21b3413c2e3&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Colin Powell Calls Trump A 'National Disgrace' in Leaked Email [Watch (HLS stream): Colin Powell Calls Trump A 'National Disgrace' in Leaked Email](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Zk7q4Pcy.m3u8) (0:36)  _Published 2016-09-14. Colin Powell reportedly called Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump a “national disgrace” and an “international pariah.”_  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Sep 14, 2016 11:58 AM UTC Colin Powell reportedly called Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump a “national disgrace” and an “international pariah.”  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":"2026-10-07T06:46:47.192Z","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"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Colin Powell Calls Trump A 'National Disgrace' in Leaked Email","description":"Colin Powell reportedly called Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump a “national disgrace” and an “international pariah.”","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Zk7q4Pcy/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-09-14T16:05:37.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Zk7q4Pcy.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4492739/colin-powell-donald-trump-email/","duration":"PT36S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4492739/colin-powell-donald-trump-email/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```