Former National Security Adviser McMaster says Trump has been tough on Russia

Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster is saying that President Trump's policy decisions on Russia have largely been appropriately tough. 

"What I found is: When presented with that analysis, he made good decisions on Russia," McMaster recently Tuesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "You might recall in that first year of his presidency he imposed a tremendous number of sanctions on Putin and his criminalized patronage network." 

Still, McMaster also acknowledges that Russian disinformation campaigns have polarized U.S. voters.

"It's a sustained campaign of political subversion ... an attack on our confidence in who we are as Americans," he told to Brian Williams, on the cable TV network's hosts.

McMaster argued that Trump has imposed harsh sanctions on Moscow when they have been needed.

"There have been really severe consequences on Putin," said the retired Army lieutenant general. "I was really proud of the fact that the Trump administration imposed very high costs on Putin and … the oligarchs around him."

The administration has imposed sanctions on Russia related to the country's 2014 annexation of parts of Ukraine, support of the Assad regime in Syria and repeated violations of the global Magnitsky Act. 

Following McMaster's media tour, Trump tweeted about his former adviser and "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scrarborough: "Our wonderful General blew up Scarborough's FAKE two year narrative. Thank you General H.R. McMaster."

McMaster is promoting his forthcoming book, "Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World."