From TikTok to Tulsi: How Mike Pence Targets Trump 2.0

It’s the second week of Trump’s second presidency, and mike pence has some concerns.

Coming from a trip in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, the former vice president is more convinced than ever of the need for the US to stand strong against China and strengthen Taiwan’s defenses.

“There seems to be this suggestion on both sides of a certain thawing of relations, which in principle I welcome, but without compromising the principles,” he told a small group of reporters at the office of Advancing American Freedom in Washington, DC.

And in the new Trump 2.0, Pence is convinced that his brand of neoconservatism is not dead, at least not yet.

“There have been voices of isolationism that have been emerging in our party lately,” he said. “I’m still not convinced they represent the president’s views.”

The former vice president doesn’t believe it the 2024 elections it was a referendum on interventionist politics.

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“I don’t think people will vote for isolationism in 2024.”

But Pence refused to endorse the president donald trump in the 2024 election. Pence and Trump clashed after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and Trump, in turn, recently suggested he would not hire anyone who had worked for his former second-in-command.

“There are strong voices both inside and outside the administration calling for the United States to withdraw, whether it’s from Eastern Europe, the Asia Pacific, and some are even calling for us to withdraw our long-term support dates to Israel”. Pence continued.

“One of the things that we want to be, Advancing American Freedom and whatever is left of my bully pulpit, is to be a windward anchor for traditional conservatism within the Republican Party.”

In Hong Kong, Pence stood in front of 2,000 people and asked the authorities to do it release Jimmy Laian imprisoned media mogul and pro-democracy activist, to audible gasps from the crowd.

Back home, he’s asking Trump to “reconsider” the US-Nippon Steel merger that Biden stopped.

He also worries that his former boss doesn’t fully understand the dangers of TikTok, following Trump’s new embrace of the video-sharing platform where he enjoys 15 million followers. He signed an executive order this week giving TikTok 75 more days up and running after Congress passed a law last year requiring them to divest from Chinese-owned ByteDance or face a ban in the US

“I am concerned that the administration does not fully appreciate the issues that animated the need for divestment,” Pence said.

“People who are in their 20s and 30s today could be in the Senate, in the House in 10 years. The fact that the Chinese Communist Party is collecting data on Americans, regardless of their age or experience , it’s not something that should be dismissed.”

The former vice president said China is trying to infiltrate public opinion in Taiwan over a possible invasion to try to take over the island.

“The CCP believes that the main value of TikTok is the ability to impact public opinion at a critical time,” he said. “When I met with the leadership in Taiwan, at TikTok they said that they were in fact facing an onslaught of social media propaganda coming out of China in Taiwan, trying to set the stage for any action, economic, political or hard power may come to them”.

It was the first Trump administration to make tough policies toward China mainstream, according to Pence.

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“I am convinced that our administration changed the national consensus on China,” he said. “I would point it out President Biden we never got rid of the $250 billion in tariffs we imposed.”

Pence said he is also concerned about Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democrat-turned-Republican congresswoman whom Trump has nominated to be his director of national intelligence.

“At times, over the last two years, she has been an apologist for Putin. And, you know, she has a history of being critical of the use of American power,” Pence said.

“I think, if he doesn’t remember, he actually criticized when we took out (top Iranian general) Qassem Soleimani.”

Trump suggested he might want to sit down with Iran and work on a new nuclear deal on Thursday. But Pence said he trusts the new administration, especially officials like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, not to be given a ride on Iran.

“The first order of business is to isolate ourselves again economically and diplomatically, and to make it clear that, unlike the Iran nuclear deal, there should be a radical change in any policy on nuclear weapons or the state of Israel.”

“I trust that the administration will be very cautious in any of these interactions.”

Pence’s group has already come out with an opposition campaign Nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

To do so, the former vice president said he would be anything but withdrawn from public life. He plans to continue to advocate for increased defense spending – 5% of GDP is his current goal – and use his voice to convince elected officials to stand strong with America’s friends and push for deterrence to prevent a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

The United States has a longstanding policy of ambiguity when it comes to whether it would actually stand shoulder to shoulder with Taiwan if China were to invade. Even privately, Pence isn’t ready to say whether that would be the right move.

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“There’s an old saying, ‘Never say what you’ll never do,'” he said.

“We should have one hand extended in friendship in return, and the other hand resting comfortably in the holster of the arsenal of democracy.”