'A decision Obama would've made': Gen. Hayden nails Trump for 'embracing' prior administration's Afghan policy

Former NSA director Gen. Michael Hayden on Monday told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Donald Trump’s strategy in Afghanistan is likely “the decision that President [Barack] Obama would have made," arguing the president appears to be “embracing what the previous administration would have done.”

Hayden and Ret. Col. Steve Warren were discussing Trump’s upcoming speech on Afghanistan, a 16-year long war the president has frequently criticized. Warren explained Trump will use his speech tonight to lay out what “success in Afghanistan going to look like.”

Tapper asked Hayden whether the fact that 60 percent of Americans do not consider the president to be honest and trustworthy will impact the nation’s ability to “trust him with the most precious resource there is, American lives.”

Hayden said the lack of faith in Trump “will have an effect,” before adding “the good news is the decision the president is going to announce tonight is the product of what I would call regular order.”

“This isn't a tweet in the middle of the night,’” Hayden explained. “This is a result of long deliberations within the national security council, discussions with the president, a decision by the president and now the president is going to lay out the decision in a full-fledged speech so that he can put it into a broader context. So that's the good news with regard to what's happening tonight.”

"This is the decision that President Obama would have made, harvesting the lessons for his 2011 decision in Iraq, but he delayed it,” Hayden explained. “He deferred to the incoming administration for what I think are quite legitimate reasons. But now we have President Trump who quite often campaigned with a completely different approach, embracing what I think the previous administration would have done.”

Watch the video below, via CNN: