Former White House national security adviser Ben Rhodes went after former President Trump for his foreign policies, calling him a “chaos agent” who cannot solve problems with other nations.
“Donald Trump — let’s be blunt — he’s not respected. He’s not taken seriously around the world. He’s a chaos agent,” Rhodes said in an interview on MSNBC Saturday. “He’s incapable of working with other countries to solve problems.”
Rhodes, who served under the Obama administration, pointed to what he called Trump’s “erratic trade war” with China, which he argued played a significant role in the country’s stubborn inflation.
Trump, during his White House term, levied tariffs against China that were largely seen as the opening salvo in a trade war with Beijing. He has argued he will be even tougher on China if he wins reelection in November.
“Donald Trump’s tearing up agreements contributed, I believe, directly to October 7, between Israel and Hamas, and so Donald Trump’s not going to solve these problems and he’s doing to make them worse,” Rhodes said.
“And you’re taking a chance on a volatile, strong man sharing the stage globally with a bunch of other volatile strong men and [Chinese President] Xi Jinping and [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and [Indian Prime Minister] Narenda Modi…I don’t think that’s a recipe for solving any problems here,” Rhodes continued. “So, if Trump offers kind of chaos and risk, I think Joe Biden at least offers again, the predictability of an American functioning in line with a set of familiar interests in the United States.”
Trump has come under fire in the past for his apparent praise of Putin, claiming he was the “apple of Putin’s eye” in an interview last summer.
The Hill reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.