President Donald Trump's more aggressive stance toward North Korea is the "right approach," as his predecessor's diplomacy practices did little to improve the situation over the past eight years, Rep. Sean Duffy said Monday.
"If North Korea has ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads, that endangers the United States of America," the Wisconsin Republican told CNN's "New Day" program. "[Pushing] China to engage and push North Korea is an appropriate strategy. This is the right approach. I think Trump sitting back and doing nothing is a mistake; this engagement and change of course is the right approach."
North Korea attempted to test a new mid-range ballistic missile over the weekend, but it failed after just a few seconds. The failed launch came after a weekend of speculations that a preemptive strike was under consideration to keep the country from testing a nuclear weapon.
Duffy said the United States should employ an "all-of-the-above" strategy when it comes to North Korea, and that "we will try all the tools we have at our disposal to make sure we disassemble North Korea [and] to ensure they are not a threat to the United States of America."
President Barack Obama, over the past eight years, used the practice of "leading from behind," but Trump was elected to "be tough on economics here at home and tough globally, to make sure we don't have the rogue nations, whether it's North Korea or ISIS or Iran walking all over us."
Trump is keeping his promises, Duffy said, and engaging in a strategy of putting America first "whether you have ISIS and a threat to America, or North Korea, with nuclear weapons and and intercontinental ballistic missiles. All of those are risks to our country."
He does, however, disagree with Trump when it comes to transparency, after the White House announced last week it would not release its visitor logs.
"I think transparency in government matters," Duffy said. "I think President Trump, as I stated during the campaign, should disclose his tax records. The logs of who comes into the White House, that should be public knowledge. Why should we be afraid to disclose that to the American people?"
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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