Former Vice President Mike Pence went after President Donald Trump over his recent foreign policy speech to Arab leaders that criticized Western interventionism in the Middle East, specifically American presidents “afflicted with the notion that it’s our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice for their sins.”
Trump visited several wealthy countries in the region last week ― including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates ― to discuss the region’s future and likely the leaders’ business ties. He also met with newly installed Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, after which he dropped all U.S. sanctions against the war-torn country despite opposition from Israel.
In an interview with “Meet the Press” released Sunday on NBC News, Pence called Trump’s visit “a very successful trip for the American economy.”
“The president secured financial commitments in all three countries, including a historic contract for purchasing Boeing aircraft that’ll really support American jobs,” he told host Kristen Welker. “And I don’t gainsay that.”
But Pence did not hold back from going after his former partner in the White House for his Tuesday address in Riyadh, where the president said that the “birth of a modern Middle East” was not created by “nation-builders,” “neo-cons” or “liberal nonprofits,” but rather by “the people of the region themselves.”
“In the end, the so-called ‘nation-builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built ― and the interventionalists (sic) were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand,” Trump said, adding that he believes it’s “God’s job to sit in judgment” and not that of U.S. presidents eager to use their military in the Middle East.
Pence vehemently condemned Trump’s “unfortunate” description of U.S. military intervention.
“I’ve never been a fan of American presidents criticizing America on foreign soil,” the Republican former vice president 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 in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Trump is hardly a dove when it comes to foreign policy, having tried to push major U.S. weapons sales to Arab countries in the same trip and bragging about “getting the greatest missiles” and “the greatest weapons.” Despite not visiting Israel during his trip, the U.S. continues to supply weapons to Israel for its complete destruction of Gaza.
The president is also facing intense domestic backlash after Qatar gifted him a $400 million jet that his administration hopes to potentially turn into a temporary Air Force One.
“Others have observed or there are profound issues, the potential for intelligence gathering, the need to ensure the president of the United States is safe and secure as he travels around the world ― and of course there are very real constitutional issues,” Pence told Welker of the jet.
“The Constitution prohibits public officials from accepting a present ― in the words of the Constitution ― a present from a foreign state,” he continued. “Now they may have some basis through chain-of-title for avoiding that, but I think it’s just a bad idea, and my hope is the president will think better of it.”