Sullivan claims Biden admin leaves Russia, China and Iran 'weaker,' America 'safer' before Trump handoff

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Trump reinforces 'all hell will break out' if hostages not returned by inauguration

President-elect Trump once again reiterated that "all Hell will break out" if the hostages are not returned by the time he enters office, as Steve Witkoff his envoy to the Mideast heads for another round of cease-fire negotiations in the region.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan claimed in an interview Sunday that Russia, China and Iran are "weaker" and the United States is "safer" after four years under President Biden's leadership. 

"Our alliances are stronger than where we found them four years ago," Sullivan said on CNN's State of the Union, referring to President-elect Trump's first term. "They're stronger than they've been in decades. NATO was more powerful, purposeful and bigger. Our alliances in the Asia Pacific are at all-time highs. And our adversaries and competitors are weaker across the board. Russia's weaker, Iran's weaker, China's weaker, and all the while we kept America out of wars."

"I think that the American people are safer, and the country is better off than we were four years ago, and we're handing off that to the next team, as well as having the engines of American power humming," Sullivan said. "Our economy, our technology, our defense industrial base, our supply chains. So the United States is in a stronger, more secure position, and our competitors and adversaries are weaker and under pressure." 

Biden's presidency was mired by the botched 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel, as the Pentagon monitors the rising threat of Islamic extremism worldwide. 

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Much of Trump's promise to voters while campaigning for a second term in 2024 centered on justice for the families of the 13 U.S. service members killed at Abbey Gate and promising peace through strength on the world stage. 

Sullivan defended Biden's handling of the withdrawal on Sunday. 

Jake Sullivan during a news conference at the White House on March 18, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"If we were still in Afghanistan today, Americans would be fighting and dying, Russia would have more leverage over us, we would be less able to respond to the major strategic challenges we face," Sullivan said. 

"We have not seen, although the investigation continues, any connection between Afghanistan and the attacker in New Orleans," he added, referring to the New Year's Day truck-ramming attack on Bourbon Street. "Now the FBI will continue to look for foreign connections, maybe we'll find one, but what we've seen is proof of what President Biden said, is that the terrorist threat has gotten more diffuse and more metastasized elsewhere, including homegrown extremists here in the United States – not just under President Biden, but under President Trump in his first term, and that is part of why we had to move our focus from a hot war in Afghanistan to a larger counterterrorism effort across the world." 

During the final weeks of his presidency, Biden has been rushing billions of dollars more in U.S. aid for Ukraine before Trump takes office.

Israeli demonstrators participate in weekly anti-government protests calling for a cease-fire and a hostage deal on Jan. 11, 2025, in Tel Aviv. (Ori Aviram/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, the Republican president-elect has claimed the war in Ukraine would never have started under his leadership and vowed to broker a deal to stop the fighting between Moscow and Kyiv. 

ISRAELI PM OFFICE DENIES REPORTS THAT HAMAS FORWARDED LIST OF HOSTAGES TO RELEASE IN EVENT OF DEAL

At a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, last week, Trump warned Hamas terrorists that "all hell will break out" in the Middle East if the remaining hostages aren't released before he takes office on Jan. 20. 

On the status of the negotiations, Sullivan said, "We are very, very close, and yet being very close still means we're far because until you actually get across the finish line, we're not there." 

President-elect Trump speaks during a press conference at the Mar-a-Lago Club on Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Sullivan stressed how President Biden's top Middle East adviser, Brett McGuirk, had been in Doja for a week "hammering out with the mediators the final details of a text to be presented to both sides." 

"And we are still determined to use every day we have in office to get this done," Sullivan said. 

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Steve Witcoff, Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, told reporters last week that he's seen progress in the hostage negotiations, but a deal must be struck by Inauguration Day. "If those hostages aren't back – I don't want to hurt your negotiation – if they're not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East," Trump said from Florida. "And it will not be good for Hamas. And it will not be good, frankly, for anyone. All hell will break out."