Ex-Defense Secretary Robert Gates waffles on Trump criticism: 'At least he hasn't started any new wars'

Robert Gates, the former secretary of defense, on Sunday said that he was relieved that President Donald Trump "hasn't started any new wars."

Gates made the remarks during an interview on NBC's Meet the Press.

Host Chuck Todd reminded Gates that he called Trump "unqualified and unfit to be commander-in-chief" in 2016.

"Has your assessment of him changed?" Todd wondered.

"I would say this, Chuck, first of all, unlike his three predecessors, and I write about this in the book, at least he hasn't started any new wars," Gates replied. "And he has robustly funded the military. I supported his outreach to North Korea. It hasn't come to anything, but I thought that it was a bold move when everything else had failed in the previous 25 years."

"But there's also the other side of the coin in terms of some of the things he says, his treatment and words about military people and military heroes like John McCain that I admire a lot that, that are really troublesome," he added.

Watch the video below from NBC.