National security adviser Jake Sullivan claimed in an interview on Sunday that Russia, China and Iran are “weak” and that the United States is “safe” after four years under President Biden.
“Our coalitions are stronger than where we found them four years ago,” Sullivan said on CNN’s State of the Union, referring to President-elect Trump’s first term. “They are stronger than they have been in decades. NATO is more powerful, more purposeful, and bigger. Our alliances in the Asia Pacific are at the highest level they have ever been. And our adversaries and competitors are weaker at all levels. Russia is weaker, Iran is weaker. ” Weak, China is weak, and all the time we kept America out of wars.”
Sullivan said, “I think the American people are safer, and the country is better off, than it was four years ago, and we’re handing it off to the next team, with the engines of American power humming along.” “Our economy, our technology, our defense industrial base, our supply chains. So the United States is in a stronger, more secure position, and our competitors and rivals are weaker and under pressure.”
Biden’s presidency was overshadowed by the failed withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, as the Pentagon eyes the growing threat of Islamic extremism around the world.
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Most of Trump’s promises to voters while campaigning for a second term in 2024 focused on justice for the families of the 13 US service members killed at Abbey Gate and promising peace through strength on the world stage.
Sullivan on Sunday defended Biden’s handling of the withdrawal.
James S. Lewis at the White House on Monday, March 18, 2024, in Washington, DC. Jake Sullivan during a press conference in the Brady press briefing room. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“If we were still in Afghanistan today, Americans would be fighting and dying, Russia would have greater influence over us, we would be less able to respond to the major strategic challenges we face,” Sullivan said.
“Although the investigation is ongoing, we have not seen any connection between the attacker in Afghanistan and New Orleans,” he said, referring to the truck-ramming attack on Bourbon Street on New Year’s Day. “Now the FBI will continue to look for foreign connections, maybe we’ll find some, but what we’ve seen is evidence of what President Biden has said, which is that the terrorist threat has become more diffuse and more widespread, including from domestic extremists elsewhere. Here in the United States – not just under President Biden, but in President Trump’s first term, and that’s why we have to shift our focus from a heated war in Afghanistan to a larger counterterrorism effort around the world. Had to do.
During the final weeks of his presidency, Biden is increasing US aid to Ukraine by billions of dollars before Trump takes office.
Israeli protesters take part in the weekly anti-government protests calling for a ceasefire and hostage swap agreement in Tel Aviv, Israel on January 11, 2025. (ORI Aviram/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, the Republican president-elect has claimed a war in Ukraine would never start under his leadership and has vowed to strike a deal between Moscow and Kiev to stop fighting.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office denied reports that Hamas had sent a list of hostages to be released in the event of a deal.
Last week, at a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump warned Hamas militants that “all of the hostages” in the Middle East would be threatened if the remaining hostages were not released before he took office. Hell will break loose.” 20 January.
On the status of the negotiations, Sullivan said, “We are very, very close, and yet being very close also means we are far away because until you actually cross the finish line, we are not there.”
President-elect Donald Trump speaks to members of the media during a press conference at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida on January 7, 2025. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Sullivan highlighted how President Biden’s top Middle East adviser, Brett McGuirk, had been in Doja for a week “with mediators hammering out the final details of the text to be presented to both sides.”
“And we’re still determined to use every day we’re in office to get it done,” Sullivan said.
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Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, told reporters last week that he had seen progress in hostage negotiations, but an agreement must be reached by Inauguration Day. “If those hostages are not returned – I don’t want to spoil your conversation – if they are not returned by the time I get into office, there will be all hell in the Middle East,” Trump said from Florida. “And it wouldn’t be good for Hamas. And it wouldn’t be good, frankly, for anybody. All hell would break loose.”
