Newt Gingrich defended Donald Trump's Taiwan call during an interview on Monday.
Many experts in the diplomatic community initially criticized Donald Trump after reports surfaced that he had engaged in a phone conversation with Taiwan's president on Friday.
Trump's call with Tsai Ing-wen marks a departure from the U.S. foreign policy which, for decades, has sided with China in viewing Taiwan as a province, not a sovereign nation.
The New York Times noted the exchange was "a striking break with nearly four decades of diplomatic practice that could precipitate a major rift with China even before Mr. Trump takes office."
However, Trump is getting quite a bit of support for his call from both expected and surprising sources.
Newt Gingrich came to his defense during an appearance on 'Fox & Friends' on Monday.
He said, "If the leader of a free people call you, why wouldn't you take the call? This whole State Department mythology that we have to somehow let the Chinese dictate to us is nonsense."
Gingrich added, "I thought it was a good signal to the world that Donald Trump is going to be his own person and that if the Chinese want to deal with the United States, they're going to have to actually deal with the United States. They're not going to be able to intimidate us."
Ted Cruz voiced his support as well, "I would much rather have Donald Trump talking to President Tsai than to Cuba's Raul Castro or Iran's Hasan Rouhani. This is an improvement."
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump, also reflected on the Taiwan call, “...I think people are getting overall critical. The truth of the matter is we need leverage with China. China is a country that cooperates with the United States on many issues, but on many issues we need to be able to push them harder."
Chinese officials have lodged a diplomatic complaint in response to the phone exchange and reiterated in a statement, “The 'one China' principle is the political foundation of China-US relations.”
