NYT Columnist Rips Pelosi Over Her Trip to Taiwan: ‘Utterly Reckless’

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) trip to Taiwan is garnering positive reactions from some of her usual critics, and negative reactions from some of her fans.

Thomas Friedman, a columnist for The New York Times, wrote on Monday, “I have a lot of respect for House Speaker 👤Nancy Pelosi. But if she does go ahead with a visit to Taiwan this week, against President Biden’s wishes, she will be doing something that is utterly reckless, dangerous and irresponsible.”

He claimed that “nothing good” would come out of the trip and “as a result of this purely symbolic visit, and a lot of bad things could happen.”

“These include a Chinese military response that could result in the U.S. being plunged into indirect conflicts with a nuclear-armed Russia and a nuclear-armed China at the same time,” Friedman wrote. “And if you think our European allies — who are facing an existential war with Russia over Ukraine — will join us if there is U.S. conflict with China over Taiwan, triggered by this unnecessary visit, you are badly misreading the world.”

The columnist also suggested that Pelosi’s trip could have ramifications for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He noted that “Biden and his national security adviser Jake Sullivan held a series of very tough meetings with China’s leadership, imploring Beijing not to enter the Ukraine conflict by providing military assistance to Russia — and particularly now, when Putin’s arsenal has been diminished by five months of grinding war.”

Friedman says U.S. officials told him China has not provided military aid to Russia.