Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld explains why he is supporting presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Rumsfeld applied his "known knowns" and "known unknowns" logic to the Trump vs. Hillary Clinton race for the presidency.



"On the Democratic side, we have a known known. On the Republican side, we have a recent entry, who's a known unknown," the former SecDef said Wednesday night to FOX News' Greta van Susteren.



"No one asked me for my endorsement," Rumsfeld said of his support for Trump. "I'm clearly going to vote for him. I just can't imagine not."



Trump tweeted he "appreciated" Rumsfeld's endorsement: "Thank you to Donald Rumsfeld for the endorsement. Very much appreciated. Clinton's conduct has been 'disqualifying.'"





Thank you to Donald Rumsfeld for the endorsement. Very much appreciated. Clinton's conduct has been "disqualifying." — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 23, 2016

DONALD RUMSFELD: I'm a former ambassador to NATO, and [people] know what Mr. Trump is being reported as saying about NATO, and I had a staff person go back and tell me precisely what he did say about NATO, and then I compared it with what the media and his opponents are saying he said about NATO, and there is a difference, and I laughed...



NATO needs --all these institutions that were created back in the Truman era, UN, NATO, DoD, CIA, NSC, they all need to be updated. They were created in 1952 at the beginning of the Cold War, we ended the Cold War and moved into the ... 21st century, and they have not been looked at to be brought up to date...



What [Trump] said about NATO -- that Western Europe and allies aren't spending enough on defense. It happens to be true... We're spending less than 4%, but our allies are spending less than 2% [of GDP on defense]. We're not going to preserve peace if we don't make the kinds of investments in our security that are needed.

Rumsfeld explained how he reacted when he learned what Trump actually said about NATO versus what the media reported Trump said about NATO:Rumsfeld also commented on the Clinton server probe: "I really believe that if she were a yeoman in the Navy or a sergeant in the Army or the Marine Corps or the Air Force that she’d be prosecuted."