Former ambassador to Russia: Putin, Xi will celebrate Trump’s ‘preemptive war’ in Iran

by Sarah Fortinsky - 06/22/25 9:16 AM ET

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul offered warnings on Saturday of how U.S. strikes on Iran could influence U.S. adversaries around the world.

In an interview on MSNBC, McFaul said Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping would be glad to see the U.S. engaging in “preemptive” strikes.

“I think we’ve really got to understand our other interests in the world that might be affected by this attack today. This is a preemptive war. The world does not support preemptive wars. We learned that in 2003,” McFaul said, referring to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which was launched based on the theory that Saddam Hussein’s regime had weapons of mass destruction and threatened America.

“Putin will be celebrating this because he did his own preemptive war in Ukraine and now it’s like, well, this is just what great powers do. Maybe Xi Jinping is going to think the same. He’s going to say, ‘Well, if they can do it here, we can do it in Taiwan,’” McFaul added.

Trump announced on Saturday evening that the U.S. had bombed three Iranian nuclear sites and said, “NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!”

McFaul, in the interview, said he wishes the president “well” in his aim to bring about peace, saying that outcome is possible but not likely.

“I hope he can bring about an agreement as soon as possible. It’s happened before — capitulation after an attack like this — so it could happen, but it’s not what I’m predicting,” McFaul said.

Sign up for the Morning Report

The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox.

By signing up, I agree to the Terms of Use, have reviewed the Privacy Policy, and to receive personalized offers and communications via email, on-site notifications, and targeted advertising using my email address from The Hill, Nexstar Media Inc., and its affiliates

“The idea that they will now sit down and negotiate with us some long-term deal in the immediate run, I think, is highly unlikely,” he added.

McFaul said it’s “good news” that the U.S. strikes, according to Trump, “totally obliterated” the Iranian nuclear facilities, saying, “I applaud that.”

“That’s good news for today, but we need to think about what are the first, second, third and fourth-order consequences after this,” McFaul added. “Most immediately, they are going to retaliate, and I hope we are prepared to prevent that.”