CNN national security analyst John Kirby, a retired rear admiral in the US Navy, was a spokesman for both the State and Defense departments in the Obama administration. The opinions expressed in this commentary, adapted from a speech delivered at the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, are his own. View more opinion articles on CNN.

John Kirby

But if his Thanksgiving Day phone call to men and women stationed abroad is any indication of what we can expect, I would just as soon have him stay home.

He needlessly politicized that conversation, railing against the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has ruled against him on immigration, complaining about unfair trade deals, and wrongly accusing his predecessor, Barack Obama, of underfunding the military.

When an Air Force general in Afghanistan reassured the President that he and his airmen know their mission is to prevent more attacks on our homeland, Trump turned it around to his much-ballyhooed border mission.

"You said it better than anybody could have said," Trump replied. "Keep them away from our shores. That's why we're doing the strong borders. You probably see over the news what's happening on our southern border, and our southern border territory. Large numbers of people, and in many cases, we have no idea who they are. In many cases they're not good people."

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