President Donald Trump's trolling of the whistleblower, a mole inside his White House who did not agree with his foreign policy, inspired another frequent critic, retired Gen. Michael Hayden to call the president "an idiot."
Gen. Hayden, who began as National Security Agency director under President Bill Clinton and served in the early years of President George W. Bush, tweeted:
"You're an idiot. Truly."
Hayden led U.S. national security when it incorrectly believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, a foreign policy failure President Trump has long rebuked.
The retired general's sophomoric response Saturday came in response to the president's Saturday tweet asking where the White House mole is amid the use of the whistleblower complaint on foreign policy as a vehicle for House Democrats' latest impeachment attempt:
"The Whistleblower has disappeared. Where is the Whistleblower?"
The whistleblower objected to the president calling for an investigation into potential corruption in the Ukraine – allegedly tying it to the release of military aid – because it involved to a Democrat who potentially could become the president's chief rival in the 2020 election.
The president has long decried leaking from Obama-era officials still working in government, deriding it as the "deep state" working to subvert his administration and damage the legitimacy of his presidency.
A Northwestern film history professor – academia, a common locale for disgust of the president – spurred a Gen. Hayden response to a tweet that further insulted the elected commander in chief, "General: I think you should use smaller words so he can read them!"
Hayden piled: "Good point."
The anti-president vitriol echoed that of another frequent critic, George Conway, the husband of White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway. George Conway celebrated the ex-military rejection of the U.S. president as an "idiot," tweeting:
"Are there any general officers in the Army who, were @realDonaldTrump under their command, leave him in charge of a platoon?"
The president – plagued by leaks in his White House from the start of his presidency under the guise his foreign policy will do damage to the Obama-era policies, if not the U.S. – has called for the whistleblower's identity in a reported effort to out him as a Democratic political operative who had ties to the Obama administration and a potential future presidential candidate.
Before suffering a stroke last November and recovering, Gen. Hayden had rejected angry political rhetoric in an exclusive interview with Newsmax:
"Our political rhetoric has become so angry, so unwise," Hayden said, albeit when it was directed at Obama's administration instead of Trump's.
In 2013 and in relation to the leaks by former NSA leaker Edward Snowden, retired Gen. Michael Hayden, told Newsmax, "There are other avenues available to people disturbed by government programs, such as a review board or a congressional investigating committee. All Snowden had to do was raise his right hand to be sworn in and then put the whole elephant out there."
While consistent on protecting a whistleblower's right to speak, Hayden did not suggest the whistleblower should be anonymous.
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