CNN
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Former Vice President Mike Pence says he believes isolationists “may have lost their footing” in President Donald Trump’s administration.
Since his split with Trump after the 2020 election, Pence has often criticized the president’s approach to Russia and his slimy support for Ukraine.
However, he told CNN’s Kate Bordian in an interview Thursday that he hopes Trump is “starting to realize” he is not interested in the end of the negotiations for the war that he began in Ukraine. And he praised Trump’s decision this week, turning back his administration’s moratorium on the shipment of weapons to Ukraine, including air defense missiles.
“I was concerned and expressed my desire for a president’s continued, continuing hopes and negotiated reconciliation in the first 100 days, but I welcome his decision this week and his rhetoric,” he said.
Pence said Trump’s clearer criticism of Putin and his support for Ukraine were the result of Trump’s coordination of those defending isolationist policies after criticising Israel’s direct military involvement in halting Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“I think what has changed is that some of the isolationist voices in and around this administration have recently condemned the president’s right and courageous decision to launch a military attack on Iran,” Pence said. “I think they may have lost their footing with the president.”
Pence said Trump is “not an isolationist.”
“His prejudice is to lead,” he said. “I think he understands America is the leader of the free world.”
He also called on Trump to provide Ukraine with “attack capabilities” in addition to air defense missiles, and urged Senate majority leader John Tune to vote on the floor for a bipartisan Russian sanctions bill. Thune said Wednesday that the Senate could take up legislation before the August break.
GOP lawmakers are calling for the White House to stay ahead of the measure, but Pence said he “spooked Trump for four years” and Trump said Tuesday that he was “very strong looking for” the bill. He suggested that Trump’s hand can be strengthened against Putin.
“The other day I saw him say he’s been looking at it so strongly, and I know what that means,” Pence said. “My hope is that the president can understand the value of Senate acting and put it on his desk.”
Pence reiterated her desire on Wednesday to “eliminate” federal emergency management agencies and rework the way they operate them.
NOEM said at a meeting of the FEMA Review Council that disaster response should be led by state and local governments rather than federal agencies.
“It was slow to respond at the federal level,” said Noem, former governor of South Dakota. “Getting resources from Americans at risk is slower, so this whole agency needs to be present and eliminated today and remade into a responsive agency.”
Pence, who was Indiana governor before serving as vice president with Trump for four years, said he takes the Nome point of the state playing a major role in disaster response. However, he also said that FEMA “provides the adversity of expertise and personnel, the ability to stand on the ground, and help Americans rebuild their lives to gain resources directly.”
“I think it’s important and should continue to make sure the federal government is there and speed up those resources to hurt Americans,” Pence said.
The former vice president, a longtime tariff critic, urged Trump to step in and assert his authority to snatch up the sudden fees for most of the goods he enters the United States.
“I think it’s absolutely important that Congress regain essentially a simile of separation of power, an industrial policy setting, a tax policy setting, a tariff policy setting, a tariff policy setting,” he said.
Pence praised the widespread policy laws Trump signed last week, calling on the president to check on the president to praise the widespread policy laws he signed to impose labor requirements on tax cuts, cuts, Medicaid and more in 2017.
As Democrats prepare to highlight Medicaid cuts that enter the 2026 midterm elections, Pence said he believes that if Congress intervened in tariff policies, the GOP could also sell new laws to voters.
“I think it’s a message of victory after 2026 and beyond, telling stories about how we extended these tax cuts, planning parents for refunds, reformed Medicaid, and rebuilding our military,” he said.