Mitt Romney slams Trump foreign policy, ‘fawning’ over Chinese leader

Steve Griffin, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Mitt Romney continued to hammer on President Donald Trump’s foreign policy, saying Thursday it helps China and Russia but offends U.S. allies.

In a Senate hearing, the Utah Republican praised Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent speeches calling out China’s predatory economic, military and geopolitical behavior and noting the U.S. must confront China with its friends and allies.

“It’s a very welcome assessment, a very cleared-eyed evaluation of China’s intent and their actions, and a statement of what our mission must be with regards to China,” Romney said. “It’s also a welcome departure from the president’s fawning praise of Xi Jinping and celebration of agreements that China hasn’t honored.”

On Wednesday, Romney called Trump’s decision to withdraw nearly 12,000 U.S. troops from Germany a “grave error” and a slap in the face to a longtime ally.

“I have heard from the highest levels of the German government that this is seen by them as an insult to Germany,” he said. “And I can’t imagine at a time when we need to be drawing in our friends and allies so that we can collectively confront China, we want to insult them.”

Romney, who Trump interviewed for the secretary of state job, also said the administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs on U.S. allies are “misplaced.”

“I would have rather focused our entire ammunition on China,” he said.

Romney asked Pompeo in the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee hearing what the administration is doing “that’s distinct, that’s different, that’s dramatic” to bring countries together to form a strategy to dissuade China from the course it’s pursuing.

Pompeo said it’s “absolutely” going to take a global effort to confront the Chinese Communist Party.

The first step, he said, is to awaken the world to the threat. For a long time not just the United States but the world saw lucrative opportunities in China, “and that was basically foreign policy, sell as much as you can, outsource jobs, build supply chains.”

Pompeo said he spent his first year on the job traveling the world to raise awareness to the threat.

“You may say it’s not enough, but it wasn’t happening before,” he said.

Pompeo said the U.S. is trying to build relationships with other countries but isn’t sure if there would be a formal organization to deal with China. He said it’s trying to convince them that the U.S. is prepared to lead in pushing back and support other nations in telling China “enough. You have to behave on the global stage.”

“That may be unsatisfying, Sen. Romney, but it is a real work in progress to get everyone fully aligned,” Pompeo said.

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