Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Sunday declared Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine “would never have happened” with former President Donald Trump in the White House.
In an interview on NBC News’ “Meet The Press,” Haley warned that “America has to wake up, and we have to start being smart to deal with these tyrants” like Putin and China’s leader Xi Jinping.
“As much as everybody wants to talk about what [Trump] says, I look at what he did,” Haley said. “He sanctioned Russia, he expelled diplomats, he shut off Nord Stream 2, which is what Putin wanted.”
“This never would have happened under Trump,” she said of Russia’s current aggression. “What we have to look at now is how do we make sure it doesn't go further under [President Joe] Biden.”
Haley said it was Biden’s handling of the U.S. withdrawal of its military troops from Afghanistan in 2021 that unleashed Putin’s flagrant aggression.
“Time after time we've shown nothing but weakness,” she railed. “We have to show strength. You can talk about past presidents all you want, but the last thing you need to be doing is looking for the TV remote when your house is burning down. We've got to start dealing with the situation at hand.”
Haley said she’s known all along Putin and Xi Jinping can’t be trusted.
“I’ve always said that you cannot trust Russia, you cannot trust Putin. You can't trust Xi, you can't trust China,” she said. “It's common sense. I dealt with them at the United Nations. You never negotiate, you never deal with your enemies. You can't trust them. That's why I was mortified that Biden went so far as asking China for help with Russia. You never ask an enemy for help with another enemy.
“I never told China anything that I didn't want Russia to know, because you know how they coordinate,” she continued. “It's the same reason why it's unthinkable that Biden would be coordinating or even thinking of getting back into the Iran deal with the Russians and Chinese at the table.”
“Why are we negotiating and trusting enemies?“ she said. “You don't do that. That's the first start to being strong in America is understanding who your enemies are and make sure you let them know that you understand them.”
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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