Senator Kim Warns of National Security Damage from Trump and Musk’s “American Retreat” on NBC’s Meet the Press
February 9, 2025
WASHINGTON D.C. – On Sunday morning, Senator Andy Kim joined NBC’s Meet the Press to discuss the Trump administration’s illegal actions to dismantle the federal government at the cost of America’s national security and global leadership. In conversation with anchor Kristen Welker, he outlined the tangible impacts that President Trump and Elon Musk’s attacks on USAID and other federal entities will have on the American people, including an increased vulnerability to global threats and decreased access to markets that will hinder economic growth.
Key quotes from Senator Kim’s interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker include:
“What we’re seeing right now with the Trump administration over the last week is very clearly an American retreat when it comes to rest of the world… China doesn’t even need to fight for their influence around the world now because of our own effort. We are doing China’s work for them.”
“I hope that the American people understand just how dire a situation this is going to be. This going to be something that makes it more likely that we see conflicts, may have to use our own troops. This is something that effects our own ability to be able to access other markets, to grow our economy. So this has very tangible impacts and this is going to be devastating to our nation’s national security.”
“When you hear National Security Advisor Waltz just now, he tries to use words like ‘realignment’, whereas what they are doing is dismantling. There is a more effective approach in going through USAID and trying to figure what are the types of actions that we support, what are ones that maybe we stop or we fix, but instead what they did was just demonize. This wasn’t about efficiency.”
“China is now going around the world saying that they are going to take over the programs that USAID has stopped. They are just gleefully taking that leadership mantle and we are giving it up.”
“If the Trump administration gets away with this with USAID, they are going to move it on to the Department of Education, they are going to move it on to FEMA, and other aspects of this. We have to show that this is illegal, and this is not an action that the Executive can do on their own.”
“If they cannot govern then that is for the American people to see. I’ve worked in government. I’ve worked through multiple government shutdowns, I would be the last person to want to get to that stage, but we are at a point when we are basically on the cusp of a constitutional crisis seeing this administration taking steps that are so clearly illegal and until we see a change in that behavior, we should not allow and condone that, nor should we assist in that.”
Senator Kim is a member of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP); the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; and the Special Committee on Aging. Before being elected to the U.S. Senate, Kim represented New Jersey’s Third Congressional District in the U.S. House and was a career public servant working in national security and diplomacy at the White House, State Department, and Pentagon. Learn more about Senator Kim’s service on behalf of New Jersey here.
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