U.S. President Donald Trump condemned a military judge’s order on Friday to spare Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl from prison after he pleaded guilty to deserting his post in Afghanistan in 2009.
Bergdahl on Friday was spared prison time for endangering fellow troops when he deserted his post in Afghanistan in 2009, but a military judge ordered he should be dishonorably discharged from the service.
WATCH: Bowe Bergdahl sentencing begins, could face life in prison
The sentence drew swift ire from Trump, who called it “a complete and total disgrace” to the United States and to the military in a Twitter post from Air Force One as he flew on the first leg of a trip to Asia.
“The decision on Sergeant Bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military,” Trump wrote in a post on Twitter. The judge also ordered Bergdahl, who was captured by the Taliban, to be dishonorably discharged and recommended that he be demoted.
As a Republican candidate for president last year, Trump, now the military’s commander in chief, called Bergdahl “a no-good traitor who should have been executed.”
In a military courtroom at Fort Bragg in North Carolina late Friday morning, Bergdahl trembled as he waited to hear his punishment.
Bergdahl, now 31, was captured by the Taliban and spent nearly five years under brutal captivity by the insurgent group. He had faced up to life imprisonment after pleading guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy in a case that sparked debate on whether Bergdahl was a villain or a victim.