Former United Nations ambassador Susan Rice warned that President Trump’s actions with ending the Russia-Ukraine war could have potential repercussions with China and Taiwan.
Rice joined MSNBC’s Jen Psaki for an interview on Sunday, where she was asked about the president’s relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and how he’s sidelined Ukraine in peace talks.
“Not only are Trump’s comments ludicrous, they’re extremely dangerous and they portend, I think, a very ominous shift in the United States’ approach to the world,” Rice said about Trump calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator.
She argued that the message Trump is sending to the world is that he is “explicitly” aligning himself with Putin.
Trump and Putin held a call recently to discuss ending the three-year war between Russia and Ukraine, and members of his administration met with Russian officials but not Ukrainian ones.
Trump earlier this week said he is purposely sidelining Zelensky, who he said “has no cards” when it comes to negotiations.
“Donald Trump is aligning himself very explicitly with Vladimir Putin, a dictator, as you pointed out in your intro, and also, Jen, with Xi Jinping of China,” Rice said. “Because understand that Putin and Xi, along with North Korea and Iran, are an axis of authoritarians. They work together.”
Rice — who served in the Clinton, Obama and Biden administrations — noted that Trump, who has long been against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), is challenging other allies through his reciprocal tariff plan and desire to acquire Greenland and Canada.
“What message does that send to Xi Jinping when Donald Trump says to Ukraine that they are the aggressor, they who, are in fact victims of an invasion, are somehow the ones who started the war?” Rice questioned.
She later added that if she were the Chinese leader, she would be looking at this situation and say it’s China’s turn to invade Taiwan.
“This is really, really a dangerous realignment of U.S. national interests,” Rice concluded. “And it’s just shocking to me that Republicans in Congress who know better are seemingly taking a pass as all this seems to be transpiring.”
