Former Secretary of State John Kerry told Harvard's Kennedy School of Government graduates on Wednesday he was not planning to get "political" with his commencement speech before going in a totally different direction with his message.

He started off by joking that his advice to young people who wanted to get into politics has changed. Previously, he told people to run for office or attend the Kennedy School but now "with this White House, I'd say buy Rosetta Stone and learn Russian."

The former secretary of state later told attendees he would not "insult" their "intelligence by pretending it's smooth sailing for America and the world," before going on to trash President Trump.

"And the truth is – no, this is not a normal time," Kerry said. "It's not normal to see a president of the United States decrying ‘so-called judges.' It's not normal for the leader of the country that invented the First Amendment to routinely degrade and even threaten journalists. And no, it's not normal to see the head of the FBI fired summarily because he was investigating connections between Russia and the presidential campaign of the very man who fired him.

"And it's not normal that when you close your eyes and listen to the news, too often the political back and forth in America sounds too much like it does in the kinds of countries that the State Department warns Americans not to travel to," Kerry added.

Former Vice President Joe Biden and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates also addressed graduates at Harvard campus events last week.