Holt to Newsmax: Trump Has 'Maximum Leverage' on Asia Trip

President Donald Trump's visit to Asia this week comes at a moment of "maximum leverage," as Chinese President Xi Jinping is entering Thursday's talks in an "extremely weak position" after internal power struggles, retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax on Sunday.

"The president is going into Asia with a lot of leverage and a lot of cards," Holt said. "The Chinese are in-fighting in a factional way to figure out how long Xi Jinping is going to be the leader."

Holt noted that China on Friday ended its fourth plenum, which refers to a full meeting of China's Communist Party Central Committee where leaders set long-term policy and address internal power struggles.

The meeting was a crucial gathering in the development of China's 15th Five-Year Plan, due early next year.

"[Xi] cleared the fourth plenum, but he's in an extremely weak position, and the factional fighting hasn't ended," said Holt.

He added that the upcoming visit will give the U.S. the opportunity to push China on key national security and trade concerns.

"The president should be stepping on the gas with every single demand that we need to see out of China," said Holt, including booting China's People's Liberation Army forces that came into America when the border was open.

Other goals will be the eradication of Confucius Institutes, the Chinese-funded cultural and language centers on U.S. college campuses that critics say are used for propaganda and influence operations, and work on China's "atrocious human rights record," said Holt.

"Now is the time to say, we'll help you, but you're going to do some things first," he added.

Retired senior special agent Michael Cutler, formerly with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said Trump's strong posture abroad depends on maintaining strong borders at home.

"It's very important that you always negotiate from a position of strength," Cutler said. "Immigration isn't the minor issue that the Biden administration and prior administrations tried to portray it as. It's a major issue."

Cutler said border enforcement is essential to national defense.

"The common mission of all branches of our military is to keep our enemies as far from our shores as possible," he said.

Turning to Venezuela, Holt said recent U.S. B-1 bomber flights near the country send a clear warning to drug cartels and their state backers.

"They should be scaring the crap out of the cartel," he said. "We're going to interdict you here at home, in your countries, upend your little political circles, and come after you right now because there's over 70,000 Americans dead because of this trade."

Holt added that the cartels' reach extends far beyond narcotics.

"They money launder for all of the illicit activities on the entire planet," he said. "Main Street America is imperiled because the cartels are on every one of those streets, and we're going to have to come together as communities to defend ourselves."

Cutler warned that the cartel threat is intertwined with Iran and Hezbollah operations in Latin America.

"Iran has been operating throughout Latin America through Hezbollah, and there's a very close link between Venezuela and Iran," he said.

"Hezbollah works closely with drug cartels and human traffickers to move drugs and sleeper agents into the country and fund terrorism and other nefarious activities around the world," Cutler added.

When asked about claims from Democrats that Trump's actions violated international law, Holt dismissed them outright.

"Nonsense," he said. "Stop protecting terrorists. Start protecting the country, and we'll all do much better. Legally, the president's on great ground."

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