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By Kate Plummer
Senior US News Reporter
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Dick Cheney became a vocal critic of President Donald Trump in the years leading up to his death on November 3.
Cheney, the former vice president to George W. Bush and an influential figure in Republican politics, called Trump a "threat" and a "coward" in numerous statements and interviews over the past decade.
Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment outside of normal business hours.
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The 84-year-old's cause of death was listed as complications stemming from pneumonia, as well as cardiac and vascular disease.
“Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing," his family said in a statement. "We are grateful beyond measure for all Dick Cheney did for our country. And we are blessed beyond measure to have loved and been loved by this noble giant of a man.”
Despite sharing a political party, Cheney held a negative view of Trump and made a number of statements disparaging him, especially after his daughter, former Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, became involved in probing the January 6 Capitol riots.
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"He Is a Coward."
In 2022, Cheney appeared in an advertisement for his daughter's political campaign, shared on her YouTube channel, in which he said: "In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.
“He is a coward. A real man wouldn’t lie to his supporters. He lost his election, and he lost big. I know it. He knows it, and deep down, I think most Republicans know.”
Kamala Harris Support
Cheney, who also served as White House chief of staff, a Wyoming representative, and Secretary of Defense during his long political career, said he would vote for former Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, in the 2024 presidential election. In a September 2024 statement, he said: "As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris."
In response, Trump lashed out at Cheney, calling him "an irrelevant RINO" (Republican in name only) on Truth Social.
Policy Disagreements
Cheney also criticized Trump's policies prior to his first administration. In 2015, he spoke out against Trump's proposal to bar Muslims from entering the United States, saying it "goes against everything we stand for and believe in."
In an interview on Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier in 2016, the Republican also said Trump sounded like a "liberal Democrat" when Trump, then a presidential candidate, attacked the Bush administration for failing to prevent the 9/11 attacks and for its 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Update 11/4/25, 9:29 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information
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