President Donald Trump's minerals deal with Ukraine is a way for Americans to get at least some repayment for the taxpayer dollars that have been "used to pay for someone else's government to be run," Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said while reacting to the agreement.
"This minerals deal is a way for the American people to get some form of, not return, but some kind of a repayment based on the taxpayer dollars that have been expended and used to pay for someone else's government to be run, to pay for someone else's infrastructure, even outside of all of the weapons system, while we still have communities here who have failing infrastructure, who have poisonous water," Gabbard told Sirius XM's "The Megyn Kelly Show" Wednesday.
The United States and Ukraine announced the long-awaited agreement Wednesday, after months of pressure from Trump for Ukraine to repay the United States for billions of dollars in military and economic assistance.
The deal is expected to give the United States access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals in exchange for American security guarantees against Russia.
Gabbard said that Trump would not have made the deal if the rare earth minerals were not available, so "this is a win for the American people, and it's a win for the Ukrainian people because this joint partnership is something that is mutually beneficial for the people of both of our countries."
She added that since the war started between Russia and Ukraine, the United States has provided $350 billion in taxpayer dollars, rather than how Europe helped out by spending money that had been frozen from Russian funds.
"In other areas, they said, OK, we'll loan you this money and we'll figure out a payback plan for the future, but not us, not the Biden administration," said Gabbard. "This money was just given, and that's it. President Trump understood that and was very bothered by it that the American people are just out of pocket on this without any means of any kind of repayment whatsoever."
Meanwhile, Americans have lost property through natural disasters, and are facing in some states levels of poverty that are only seen in Third World countries, said Gabbard.
"What I saw and experienced when I was helping President Trump during his election campaign was that there was a spark of hope in people's hearts when they saw that he was addressing the very things that they were most concerned about," she said.