After President Donald Trump accused CNN International of being a “major source of (Fake) news” abroad, an exasperated former CIA and NSA director asked rhetorically if he had wasted much of his life in defense of the U.S.

“If this is who we are or who we are becoming, I have wasted 40 years of my life,” Gen. Michael Hayden, ret., wrote on Twitter in response to Trump’s tweet Saturday. “Until now it was not possible for me to conceive of an American President capable of such an outrageous assault on truth, a free press or the first amendment.”