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National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in an interview Sunday that Russia, China and Iran are “weaker” and the United States is “more secure” after four years under President Biden’s leadership.
“Our alliances are stronger than they were 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 was more powerful, determined and bigger. Our alliances in the Asia Pacific are at all-time highs. And our adversaries and competitors are weaker across the board. Russia is weaker , Iran is weaker.” weaker, China is weaker, and we kept America out of wars all along.”
“I think the American people are safer and the country is better off than they were four years ago, and we’re passing that on to the next team, as well as having the engines of American power running,” Sullivan said. “Our economy, our technology, our defense industrial base, our supply chains. Therefore, the United States is in a stronger and more secure position, and our competitors and adversaries are weaker and under pressure.”
Biden’s presidency was bogged down by Failed withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks on Israel, as the Pentagon monitors the growing threat of Islamic extremism around the world.
Much of Trump’s promise to voters as he campaigned 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.
Jake Sullivan during a press conference in the James S. Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, Monday, March 18, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“If we were still in Afghanistan today“Americans would be fighting and dying, Russia would have more influence over us, we would be less able to respond to the major strategic challenges we face,” Sullivan said.
“We have not seen, although the investigation continues, any connection between Afghanistan and the attacker in new orleans” he added, referring to the New Year’s Day truck attack on Bourbon Street. “Now the FBI will continue to look for foreign connections, maybe we will find one, but what we have seen is proof of what President Biden said, is that the terrorist threat has become more diffuse and more metastasized elsewhere, including homegrown extremists here in the United States, not just under President Biden, but under President Trump in his first term, and that’s part of the reason why that we had to act. our focus from a hot war in Afghanistan to a broader counterterrorism effort around the world.”
Over the final weeks of his presidency, Biden has been sending billions of dollars more in U.S. aid to Ukraine before Trump takes office.
Israeli protesters take part in weekly anti-government protests calling for a ceasefire and a hostage exchange deal on January 11, 2025 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (ORI AVIRAM/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, the Republican president-elect claimed that the war in Ukraine would never have started under his leadership and promised to negotiate a deal to stop the fighting between Moscow and kyiv.
At a news conference from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, last week, Trump warned Hamas terrorists that “all hell will break loose” in the Middle East if the remaining hostages are not freed before to take office on January 20.
On the status of negotiations, Sullivan said: “We are very, very close and yet being very close still means we are far away because until you cross the finish line, we will not be there.”
President-elect Donald Trump speaks to the media during a press conference at the Mar-a-Lago Club on January 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Sullivan stressed that President Biden’s top Middle East adviser, Brett McGuirk, had been in Doja for a week “working with mediators on the final details of a text that will be presented to both sides.”
“And we are still determined to use every day we have in office to get it done,” Sullivan said.
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Steve Witcoff, Trump’s special envoy for the middle eastHe told reporters last week that he has seen progress in hostage negotiations, but that an agreement must be reached before Inauguration Day. “If those hostages haven’t returned – I don’t want to jeopardize their negotiation – if they haven’t returned by the time I take office, all hell will break loose in the Middle East,” Trump said from Florida. “And it won’t be good for Hamas. And, frankly, it won’t be good for anyone. All hell will break loose.”
