Pence Rips Trump For Assessing U.S. Foreign Policy During Saudi Trip
Former Vice President Mike Pence is still trying to remain relevant within the GOP by criticizing his former boss, but this approach does not seem likely to endear him to the MAGA world.
Pence on Sunday ripped Trump for remarks made during a speech in Saudi Arabia last week, calling them a “disservice” to U.S. veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Pence responded to Trump’s comments in Riyadh, where the president denounced previous U.S. interventions in the Middle East. Trump asserted that the development of modern cities like Riyadh and Abu Dhabi was not the result of Western “nation-builders,” but rather the achievement of local populations.
“In the end, the so-called ‘nation-builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built,” Trump said. “The interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves.”
Trump ran and won on a platform of peace-making and keeping the U.S. out of endless foreign conflicts, among other policies like sealing the U.S. border and mass deportations.
Trump made the remarks during a multi-day visit to the region that included stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, though he did not visit Israel—a point noted by NBC’s Kristen Welker.
While Pence described the trip as a success overall, he criticized his former running mate for the comments made during the stop in Saudi Arabia.
“But, Kristen, I’ve never been a fan of American presidents criticizing America on foreign soil,” he said. “And to have the president in Saudi Arabia questioning America’s global war on terror, and describing it as nation-building and interventionist, I thought was a disservice to generations of Americans who wore the uniform and who took the fight to our enemy, you know, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. And particularly giving that speech in Saudi Arabia, where 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers hailed from, not including Osama bin Laden, I thought was unfortunate.”
In Riyadh, Trump said, “nation-builders,” “neo-cons,” and “liberal non-profits,” had “spent trillions failing to develop Kabul and Baghdad” and “so many other cities” during the war on terror — remarks that a majority of his supporters agree with.
Pence said in February he wants to be a “constructive force for the conservative agenda” during Trump’s second term because he is one of the few Republicans who is ready to formally challenge the president.
Even though Pence and Trump had a public falling out after the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, the former vice president said he would support the new Trump administration on issues he agreed with.
“Well, for me, it’s always principles first. It’s not personal,” Pence said.
Advancing American Freedom, Pence’s political action committee, spent almost $1 million on ads against Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s new Health and Human Services Secretary.
As Pence put it, the “nomination of an abortion rights supporter to be secretary of HHS is a dramatic departure from 50 years of strong pro-life leadership at HHS under Republican administrations.”
Asked why Republicans might be reluctant to oppose Trump publicly, Pence said, “I never speculate on motives. You know, I’m not new to town. I’ve waged lonely battles before.”
“But you know, you have to be willing to step out and lead,” the former vice president said. “My hope is that when the next issue of life comes up, that people will have been encouraged, emboldened to know that they’re not alone.”
“We’re calling balls and strikes here,” Pence told the AP. “I think that the way we want to approach this is with integrity to principle. And I’m very encouraged. I think the Trump administration is off to a great start… I’m very pleased about the president undoing Biden’s border policies and putting back into place the policies that we had negotiated and established that secured the border.”
