Susan Rice, former President Barack Obama's national security adviser, had harsh words for President Donald Trump and his foreign policy, decimating his strategy for being isolationist and suggesting it represented "a whole lot of winning" for Russia and China, The Hill reported Friday.
Rice, who also served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, made the statement in an article she wrote for The New York Times on Friday.
"With shocking speed, he has wreaked havoc: hobbling our core alliances, jettisoning American values and abdicating United States leadership of the world," Rice wrote. "That's a whole lot of winning — for Russia and China."
Trump's decision in January to leave the Trans Pacific Partnership opened the door for China to assert itself on trade in the region, and his failure to express support for the mutual defense of NATO allies during his recent visit to Europe must have "thrilled" Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Rice said the decision to leave the Paris climate agreement was the "coup de grâce for America's postwar global leadership for the foreseeable future."
"It was not taken from us by any adversary, nor lost as a result of economic crisis or collapse of empire. America voluntarily gave up that leadership — because we quit the field," she added.
She also claimed modern threats, such as "terrorism, nuclear proliferation, disease, climate change, violent cartels" were not solvable by military strength alone or by any one country.
"They require effective collective action, and thus, willing partners," she wrote. "Our friends' profound disappointment with the United States is a measure of the damage already done to America's global standing by this administration."
She also gave a warning of impending doom when the next "fresh crisis arises."
"If China takes aggressive action in the South China Sea, threatening our Asian allies as well as our own freedom of navigation, will our Western allies risk the economic repercussions of confronting China to stand beside an 'America First' president who refuses to affirm our NATO commitments?" she asked.
"Most Americans surely still see the benefits of the United States being the strongest, most trusted and respected country in the world. So, we must take steps now to recover and regroup," Rice wrote, suggesting Americans spearhead diplomatic efforts "in the absence of White House leadership," acting as "informal ambassadors" through tourism and study abroad.
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