Brent Sadler

That's more of my concern in the summit in the near term.

And that's been not because of the Trump administration.

It's been my experience, Democrat, Republican administrations for many cycles going way back.

The potential for lucrative trade deals, near-term gains, without strategic thinking.

I would say I'm encouraged because when you look and you connect the dots of Venezuela to Iran to the assault on the dark shipping all over the world, which is really Russian, and trying to put a clamp on the Ukraine war –

That strategic thinking that's informing all of that sets a very strong context and framing to get a lot out of this summit if we so choose to with China.

And again, the Chinese are the ones that we have to deter.

They're the ones that we need to avoid a war with because the cost of that is just so astronomical.

So I'd imagine continued, very explicit, easy to understand language.

Some would say not diplomatic, but having been a military diplomat,

and having to translate more polite American English speaking into language where English is the second or third language, I will tell you that the straightforwardness that you see and you hear is appreciated by many from friend and foe overseas because you clearly understand where the president is.

And the Chinese, of course, are hypersensitive because they rely on the energy coming out of the Gulf.

It's like over half of it's coming from the Gulf countries.

Not all of it from Iran either.

A lot of it from Iraq, but it still has to go through that strait.

So I think it's in China's best interest that they lean on the Iranians to relent and to let the traffic go through the straits.

But of course, this is not a president you want to test his resolve in either.

Well, if it's not the Chinese, it's probably going to be the Chinese in the near future with large drones. They already tested us with the balloon and that was a fiasco. So this sends a signal that there is a security gap that an adversary can take advantage of.

Well, if it's not the Chinese, it's probably going to be the Chinese in the near future with large drones. They already tested us with the balloon and that was a fiasco. So this sends a signal that there is a security gap that an adversary can take advantage of.