Ex-CIA director suspects Trump repeated Putin’s anti-NATO talking points on Fox News

Ret. Gen. Michael Hayden on Wednesday said it was likely that President Donald Trump's bizarre remarks about the nation of Montenegro during a Fox News interview came directly from Russian President Vladimir Putin's talking points.

During a CNN interview, host Alisyn Camerota played Hayden a clip of Trump discussing NATO member Montenegro with Fox News host Tucker Carlson in which he described the tiny nation as "very aggressive" and that could spark "World War III" if they decided to attack Russia.

Hayden, a former CIA director, said Trump's words about Montenegro sounded suspiciously like Russian propaganda used to describe the country.

"I would not be at all surprised that what you heard the president say to Tucker Carlson there last night is derived from what Vladimir Putin told him during the one-on-one discussions in Helsinki," Hayden said.

"That's troubling," Camerota said. "How will we know what happened in those one-on-one discussions?"

"I don't know," Hayden admitted.

Elsewhere in the segment, Hayden also criticized Trump for not understanding that NATO is most effective if its foes believe that an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all NATO countries.

"The president just expressed his doubt and took on the core requirement of the North Atlantic Treaty," he said.

Watch the video below.