As former President Donald Trump continues to speak of Vladimir Putin in glowing terms during his invasion of a sovereign country, his former national security adviser says the Russian leader is not worthy of praise.

Retired General H.R. McMaster joined CNN’s John Berman Thursday on New Day to talk about the full-scale military campaign Russia launched against Ukraine. As McMaster reacted to the devastating attack, Berman asked him of Putin: “Is this a man to be praised? To be honored by the West as we watch an invasion like this?”

“He is certainly not someone to be praised,” McMaster said, “and I think what we ought to be encouraged by is the reaction across the free world. Really, what Putin wants more than anything is disunity, because disunity will lead to an ineffective response.”

McMaster saying Putin should not be praised is a considerable divergence from the rhetoric Trump has been running with throughout the Ukraine crisis.

In the past week, Trump repeatedly praised Putin as “smart” and “savvy” for how the Russian leader was sending “peacekeeping” forces into Ukraine when it was really the first phase of their invasion. As he wailed about his failed re-election and called President Joe Biden weak, Trump doubled down by saying Putin was “smart” to disregard sanctions against Russia (even though their stock market just nosedived).

McMaster said that even though Germany and France both had stumbles in responding to Russia’s aggression, “the story is one of unity” in terms of how the world is reacting to Ukraine.

“It’s time for us certainly to lead as part of the free world, and to recognize that this is a return of great power competition, and it’s a dangerous competition,” McMaster said. “This is one campaign in his larger effort to drag everybody else down.”

Watch above, via CNN.

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