On Tuesday, a Fox News contributor and leading security expert didn’t hold back while discussing President Donald Trump’s recent moves regarding the United States’ top adversaries. According to Rebecca Heinrichs, senior fellow at Hudson Institute, Trump is making a “serious mistake” by increasingly aligning with Russia.
Read more White House orders Kimberly Guilfoyle to ‘stay away’: report
Asked her opinion of a possible upcoming summit between Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping — an idea suggested by Putin — Heinrichs was blunt about her assessment, saying, “If the President wants to meet with Xi Jinping and Putin to talk about Ukraine, I think that would be a serious mistake. If you want to do something like Yalta, then you have meetings among allies, the United States with the Europeans, with Ukraine, trying to figure out what to do about Russia.” The Yalta Conference was held at the end of World War Two, bringing the Allies together to debate the post-war fates of Germany and Europe.
Heinrich’s warning comes amid bipartisan criticism of the Trump administration for moves that appear to align the U.S. with Russia. Trump decided to drop sanctions against Russia in order to buy its diesel, and simultaneously, Ukraine has experienced a suspicious drop in Starshield capabilities, hindering the country’s defenses and communications. All of this has handed Putin a major gift as Russia has been struggling militarily. As Fox noted, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) has blasted the president, declaring, “Putin is lying. Putin is playing President Trump like a fiddle. And history is not going to look good on an America that failed to rise up and defend the Western world if Putin actually gets his way. And I believe that a summit with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, two countries who want to overwhelm the world, is absurd.”
According to Heinrich, “With Senator Tillis, there’s been about 14 Republican senators who have come out on the record opposing this diesel deal, buying diesel from Russia and also lifting the Lindsey Graham Sanctions Act.So there’s a lot more Republicans — there might be more after the midterms as well. I think that what Senator Tillis is really worried about is that President Trump is not fully appreciating the fact that China and Russia are behind and supporting Iran, who is firing weapons at the United States, trying to kill Americans. And they’re collaborating to undermine the United States and Europe.”
Read more Brianna Keilar derails Trump’s blame game with blistering fact-check
Her point follows a declaration by the Iranian foreign minister that Iran and Russia have “never worked as closely as now.” Asked if there is any reason to dispute that Russia is helping Iran, Heinrich said, “No. And actually, we just saw, after President Trump is arguing now that Zelensky is the one standing in the way of peace, you saw Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, meeting with the foreign minister of Iran. And Lavrov was saying that the Iranian’s cause against the United States was, quote, just. And he compared it positively with Russia’s cause against the United States, his effort with NATO in Ukraine. So the Russians are supporting the Iranians. They are providing targeting, which the Iranians are then using to hit Americans in the Gulf region.”
Her conclusion was straightforward: “Look — the Russians are, yes, they are hitting Ukrainian energy infrastructure, but the Russians are also hitting American businesses in Ukraine — Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Boeing, Philip Morris — because the Russians also want the United States to stop support for Ukraine, want the Europeans to stop support for Ukraine. The Russians view the United States as its number one adversary, and they’re trying to get the United States to back down and not support Zelensky…I think the best way to make progress is for the United States to actually move closer with the Europeans collectively. I think we can get something done here alongside Ukraine to pressure Russia. But if we’re going to pressure the Russians, or if we can’t pressure the Russians, I just don’t think we’re going to get to an end here.”
Read more Kristi Noem’s $464M jet fleet is sitting in a parking lot collecting dust
