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National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan argued in an interview Sunday that Russia, China and Iran are “weaker” and the United States is “more secure” after four years under President Biden.
“Our alliances are stronger than where we found them 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, more purposeful and bigger. Our alliances in the Asia-Pacific region are at an all-time high. And our adversaries and competitors are weaker everywhere. Russia is weaker, Iran is weaker, China is weaker, and all the while we kept America out of wars.”
“I think the American people are safer and the country is better off than we were four years ago, and we leave that to the next team, and to keep the engines of American power humming,” Sullivan said. “Our economy, our technology, our defense industrial base, our supply chains. So the United States is in a stronger, more secure position, and our competitors and adversaries are weaker and under pressure.”
Biden’s presidency was affected unsuccessful withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, as the Pentagon monitors the growing threat of Islamic extremism around the world.
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Much of Trump’s promise to voters during the 2024 re-election campaign focused on justice for families 13 American soldiers were killed at Abbey Gate and promising peace through strength on the world stage.
Sullivan defended Biden’s handling of the withdrawal on Sunday.
Jake Sullivan during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC, Monday, March 18, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“If we were still inside Afghanistan todayAmericans would be fighting and dying, Russia would have more leverage over us, we would be less able to respond to the grand strategic challenges we face,” Sullivan said.
“We have not seen, although the investigation continues, any connection between Afghanistan and forward in New Orleans” he added, referring to the New Year’s Eve truck attack on Bourbon Street. “Now the FBI will continue to look for foreign links, we may find one, but what we’ve seen is evidence of what President Biden has said is that the terrorist threat has become more diffuse and more metastasized elsewhere, including domestic extremists here in the United States—not only under President Biden, but under President Trump in his first and that’s part of the reason we had to shift the focus from the hot war in Afghanistan to the larger counterterrorism efforts around the world.”
During the final weeks of his presidency, Biden rushed 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 the war in Ukraine would never have started under his leadership and vowed to broker a deal to end fighting between Moscow and Kiev.
At a news conference from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida last week, Trump warned Hamas terrorists that they would “unleash hell” in the Middle East if the remaining hostages were not released before he takes office on January 20.
On the status of negotiations, Sullivan said, “We’re very, very close, and yet being very close still means we’re far away because until you actually cross the finish line, we’re not there.”
President-elect Donald Trump speaks to members of 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 noted that President Biden’s top adviser on the Middle East, Brett McGuirk, had been at the DOJ for a week “working with mediators on the final details of the text that will be presented to both sides.”
“We remain determined to use every day we have in the office to do that,” Sullivan said.
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Steve Witcoff, Trump’s special envoy for The Middle Easthe told reporters last week that he had seen progress in the hostage negotiations, but a deal must be reached by Inauguration Day. “If those hostages don’t come back — I don’t want to hurt your negotiations — if they don’t come back by the time I take office, there’s going to be hell in the Middle East,” Trump said from Florida. “And that’s not going to be good for Hamas. And it’s not going to be good, frankly, for anybody. All hell will break loose.”
