Mike Pence

the great advancements that we've made with the F-35 don't fall into the hands of nations that are hostile to our interests.

Well, I think one of the things that our administration did in our four years was recognize that China is the greatest economic and strategic threat facing the United States.

And we imposed historic tariffs on China.

We brought China to the table for the phase one trade deal, which you may remember from January 2020.

of 2020.

But I have concerns with the administration allowing TikTok to continue to operate, despite the fact that Congress and the previous administration passed a law saying it must be sold or banned within a set period of time.

And the recent arrangement to allow NVIDIA to sell significant chip technology to China just simply in exchange for

a revenue-sharing agreement with the United States.

I think it's absolutely essential that we continue to put the security of the United States and our ability to defend our interests and our treaty allies across the region as China continues its military provocations and its extraordinary investments in its own military technology.

And that would be my concern with any weapons sale to any country around the world.

Well, I think there's no question that nature abhors a vacuum.

And that's equally true on the world stage.

And the previous administration in so many ways projected weakness on the world stage.

The disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Biden administration actually, after inflation, actually cut military spending significantly.

In the United States and particularly after Afghanistan, we saw Russia launch its brutal and unprovoked invasion into Ukraine.

We saw Hamas surge across the borders of Gaza with the most brutal assault on the Jewish people.

since the holocaust and we've seen china continue its its military provocations across the asia pacific when when we were in office we spoke about what the new trump administration speaks about and that is peace through strength and i think the relationship between the united states and our allies across the free world has never been more important and trade is a part of that i i would

Hasten to add that I believe in free trade with free nations and the president's unilateral tariffs imposed on friend and foe alike, I think, have been contrary to the long term interest in prosperity of the West.

We ought to be working always.