By Staff, Agencies

Deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates called former president Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin “nauseating, fearful pigs who hate what America stands for.”

Bates’ broadside in a tweet posted on Thursday, came as he shared a HuffPost article that featured quotes from a speech Trump gave on Tuesday night, at Mar-a-Lago praising the Russian leader as “pretty smart” for “taking over a country for $2 worth of sanctions.”

“He’s taking over a country, really a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people, just walking right in,” Trump said.

Trump’s comments came as Russia began a full-scale military offensive in Ukraine.

“Two nauseating, fearful pigs who hate what America stands for and whose every action is driven by their own weakness and insecurity, rubbing their snouts together and celebrating as innocent people lose their lives,” Bates tweeted.