A former CIA counter-terrorism deputy has come out strongly against Donald Trump, criticising him for what he called a “disgusting” speech at the CIA headquarters.

On Saturday, Trump used his time to speak in front of the Memorial Wall, not to focus on the stars that represent agents killed in action, but rather to boast of his inauguration crowd, attack the media and brag about his intellect.

Rather amusingly, or not, Trump later in the day went on to brag about the standing ovation he received – but this was because he actually never told the crowd to sit.

 

“You almost want to cry”

Philip Mudd, a former deputy director of the CIA Counterterrorist Center said, “There’s a sense of outrage, but there’s also such a sense of sadness. Those aren’t stars; those are people.”

He added: 

“We have a president who has to talk about how many times he’s been on the Time magazine cover in comparison to a football player. He’s got to talk about how many people showed up at his inauguration. He’s got to talk about how many people in the CIA enjoyed his speech. That’s what we get to honour the people who lost their lives.”

The speech should have been used to honour those who sacrificed their lives for their country and to talk about the future of American security.

“It’s disgusting, I don’t know what else to say. You can’t do that if you’re the president.”

Mudd is just the latest of former agency bigwigs to openly criticize Trump’s speech, former CIA Director John Brennan said he was “deeply saddened and angered” by Trump’s “despicable display of self-aggrandizement” and that the president “should be ashamed of himself.”