President Donald Trump's decision to strike the Syrian regime late last week shook Russia and China, former speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
"I think the Chinese were very shaken. I think they’ve never seen anything quite like that,” Gingrich said during an interview with John Catsimatidis on "The Cat's Roundtable" on 970 AM in New York.
While Trump was hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump ordered the U.S. to fire more than 50 cruise missiles at the Sharyat Airbase in Syria, a barrage in response to a chemical attack in the Syrian village of Khan Sheikhou which left more than 85 people dead and hundreds more injured. Many blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the chemical attack, and Trump vowed to do something about it.
"I think that was a substantial shock to Putin and to the Russians," Gingrich added. "It also reminded people just who the most powerful country in the world is and the fact is that it’s not Russia. We’re vastly more powerful than the Russians are."