Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer argued that China must “significantly deescalate” before the U.S. can consider reducing its military budget.
Spicer joined NewsNation’s “The Hill” Thursday, during which host Blake Burman asked him about President Trump’s recent remarks, where he said he would like to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin to ease tensions and eventually reduce America’s military budget.
Spicer said he doesn’t think de-escalation will happen in his lifetime or his grandchild’s lifetime.
“China has very clearly said that they expect war by 2027,” he said, later adding, “I mean, China would need to significantly de-escalate to even have a beginning.”
Spicer, who served under the first Trump administration, said it’s “great” that Trump has an “aspirational goal” to achieve peace with the country’s adversaries.
“Think about Ronald Reagan. The idea was to figure out a way to bring down the nuclear arsenals of all of the countries. It’s good that we’re talking about wanting to have peace, as opposed to trying to talk about war,” Spicer said.
“I’d rather be talking about that than going to war,” he added. “But, let’s face it, I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon.”
It’s been a busy few weeks as Trump nearly completes his first month back in office.
Just this week, he’s highlighted his international ambitions by speaking with Putin following a prisoner swap. The two presidents spoke about taking steps to ending the nearly three-year war in Ukraine, though there are concerns about Trump’s closeness to Putin and what will happen on the negotiating table with U.S. ally Ukraine.
Speaking from the White House on Thursday, Trump suggested that the U.S. could cut its defense budget in half sometime in the future.
“At some point, when things settle down, I’m going to meet with China and I’m going to meet with Russia, in particular those two, and I’m going to say there’s no reason for us to be spending almost $1 trillion on the military,” Trump said from the Oval Office.
“When we straighten it all out, then one of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China and President Putin of Russia, and I want to say let’s cut our military budget in half,” he later said. “And we can do that, and I think we’ll be able to do that.”
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