Mike Pence knifes Trump for not drawing a harder line on China ahead of Xi and Putin meeting this week

Detailed summary

President Donald Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence shared that he was shocked by how closely the current administration is working with America's top adversaries.

Published: 18:00 GMT, 15 November 2026 | Updated: 18:03 GMT, 15 November 2026

President Donald Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence shared that he was shocked by how closely the current administration is working with America's top adversaries.

In an interview with NBC's Meet the Press, Pence highlighted the hardline stance that the first Trump administration, in which he served, took on China.

'You’ll recall that during the first Trump administration, we drew a hard line on China. We imposed $250 billion in a year in tariffs. We built up our military in the region. We called out the persecution of Muslim Uyghurs as the genocide that it was,' Pence noted.

Speaking to moderator Kristen Welker on Sunday, Pence then compared those policies with actions being taken in the second Trump administration, saying that he doesn't 'really understand why.'

'First it was allowing TikTok to continue to operate in the United States, even though it continues to be essentially controlled by the Chinese Communist Party,' Pence stated, before continuing, 'Also, the delaying of weapons sales to Taiwan, where in our administration, we made those weapons available.'

'Then ultimately on Nvidia, the decision to loosen the export controls on our most advanced microchips is a mystery to me,' Pence added.

The former Vice President then warned that Beijing has spent decades stealing American intellectual property and technology to boost its economic and military capabilities.

'China, for decades, has been engaging in espionage and intellectual property theft all in efforts to gain American technology,' Pence stated.

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