OAN Staff Blake Wolf
3:23 PM – Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Former Vice President Mike Pence slammed President Donald Trump’s stance on the Russia-Ukraine war, along with his tariff policies.
Speaking with CNN, Pence criticized Trump’s “wavering” support for Ukraine, arguing that the weakening support emboldens Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“If the last three years teaches us anything, it’s that Vladimir Putin doesn’t want peace; he wants Ukraine,” Pence said. “The wavering support the administration has shown over the last few months, I believe, has only emboldened Russia.”
Pence subsequently argued that the United States must demonstrate significantly stronger support for Ukraine, warning that failure to do so would likely embolden Putin to invade a neighboring NATO country—an outcome that would inevitably compel “our men and women in uniform” to engage in direct combat.
“I hold to that old Reagan doctrine, that if you’re willing to fight our enemies on your soil, we’ll give you the means to fight them there so we don’t have to fight them.”
Pence’s criticism of President Trump’s policies follow after the 47th president was able to strike a minerals deal agreement with Ukraine, providing the U.S. access to rare earth minerals used in missile guidance systems, radar, jet engines, and communication systems. In addition to the manufacturing of smartphones, computers, electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines, and solar panels, they are also crucial for producing advanced military hardware like F-35 fighter jets and nuclear submarines.
Despite the recent “unifying” Ukraine-U.S. deal, Pence then switched topic in the interview, criticizing Trump once more for “sending the wrong message” by pardoning or commuting the sentences of the over 1,000 individuals who protested at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
This is presumably due to the fact that many of the protesters involved in the January 6th protest expressed anger toward Pence. On that day, chants of “Hang Mike Pence” were heard as some erected a makeshift gallows outside the Capitol.
“I was deeply disappointed to see President Trump pardon people that engaged in violence against law enforcement officers that day. The president has every right under the Constitution to grant pardons, but in that moment, I thought it sent the wrong message,” Pence said with a smug expression.
Later in the CNN-aired discussion, Pence slammed Trump’s recently introduced tariff policies, claiming that they “will result in inflation that will harm consumers and that will ultimately harm the American economy.”
“I do have concerns that, with the president’s call for broad-based tariffs against friend and foe alike, that ultimately the administration is advancing policies that are not targeted at countries that have been abusing our trade relationship, but rather are essentially new industrial policy that will result in inflation, that will harm consumers and that will ultimately harm the American economy,” he stated.
“We ought to be engaging our trading partners across the free world to lower trade barriers, lower non-tariff barriers and subsidies,” Pence continued. “But when it comes to authoritarian regimes, we ought to get tough, stay tough and demand that they open their markets and respect our intellectual property.”
Pence went on to bizarrely note that cheap goods are really “part of the American dream.”
“I have two grown daughters. I have three small granddaughters. And look, keeping dolls affordable, keeping our kids’ toys affordable, that really is part of the American dream,” Pence stated, expressing his support for cheap Chinese goods and consumerism. “I think the American people are going to see the consequences of this. I think they’ll demand a different approach.”
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts