Former CIA chief Michael Hayden said Friday that President Donald Trump was right to remain silent in light of Russia President Vladimir Putin's "taunting" this week with his nuclear weapons announcement.
"The correct response for an American president for someone like Putin, a lesser actor in a lesser state, is to be quiet," Hayden, who also directed the NSA, told Wolf Blitzer on CNN. "That was the right answer.
"I wish that he had that answer for some of the other taunting that we've seen," Hayden added.
Trump has not commented on Putin's disclosure Thursday of a new generation of nuclear weapons, presented with a video showing warheads raining down on what appeared to be an outline of Florida, though many experts doubted the Russian's claims on some of the weapons.
Hayden said he did not know why Trump has not spoken out against the Kremlin leader but suggested that "this is a stubborn man.
"I don't think that he may want to admit that he should have been criticizing Vladimir for quite a while."
Turning to reports that national security adviser H.R. McMaster could be departing by the end of the month, Hayden told Blitzer that "it can't be good."
He added that rumors of any NSA chief leaving would appear regularly in the media because "the problem is process."
Hayden then referenced Brent Scowcroft, who served as NSA chief under Republican Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush and later observed key command operations during 9/11 under President George W. Bush as head of an intelligence advisory board.
"Unless your national security adviser is Brent Scowcroft, he is your process guy," he said.
"He is the one who imposes order and discipline and sequence."
President Trump, however, "dislikes all of those virtues," Hayden added.
"We see this recurring every three-to-four weeks — and it will recur even if H.R. leaves."
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