(CNN) Former Obama-era Secretary of Defense and Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel on Thursday blasted President Donald Trump's decision to move thousands of US troops to the southern border.

"This is folly. This is political distraction of the highest magnitude," Hagel told CNN's Jake Tapper on "Erin Burnett OutFront."

Hagel lambasted Trump's decision "taking thousands of American troops who are trained on the cutting edge all the time, and sending them down to a border where there is no need, no threat to an invasion of the hordes coming in from Latin America, which is a joke."

Hagel also cited the restrictions on military personnel at the border.

"They are of limited utility anyway because of the constitutional issues involved here as to what our active military can and cannot do," he added.

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