Following Donald Trump dismissing questions about the Iran war quagmire the U.S. is stuck in during a press availability preceding NATO talks in Turkey, retired United States Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling pounced on the president for parroting Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

After live coverage of the question and answer period concluded on MS NOW, host Stephanie Ruhle noted, “General, let's start right there with the president's comments with regard to the war with Iran; he said, it is ‘not even a war, it's just a military operation.’”

“I think he called it a ‘special military operation,' which sounds eerily familiar to what President Putin was calling the invasion in Ukraine,” Hertling shot back.

“It is a war, Stephanie,” he continued. “I mean, it meets every definition of war that I've ever read in history books or doctrine or military theory. So it's just a canard that he's throwing out there to say, ‘yeah, this is no big deal, we won, everything's fine.”

“But last night we saw more ships being struck by Ukrainian drones or, excuse me, Iranian drones. It's just a mishmash of information that he’s passing off to the press,” he accused.

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