The deputy director of the National Security Agency minced no words today in an interview with the BBC about Donald Trump’s claim that Britain helped President Obama spy on him during the campaign; he called Trump’s accusation “arrant nonsense.”

And that’s not all he said.

President Trump has stood by unproven claims that the Obama administration tapped his phones during the 2016 White House race. On Thursday his spokesman cited a media report that Britain’s GCHQ was behind the surveillance.

Richard Ledgett, deputy director of the NSA, told BBC News the idea that Britain had a hand in spying on Trump was “just crazy”.

“It belies a complete lack of understanding of how the relationship works between the intel community agencies, it completely ignores the political reality of ‘would the UK government agree to do that?’”, Ledgett said.

There would be no advantage for Britain’s government in spying on Trump, given the potential cost, he said.

“It would be epically stupid,” said Ledgett, who is due to retire shortly.

That last line is a kicker. You better believe he’ll be retiring shortly.