Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a close adviser to Trump, praised the President-elect's conversation with Taiwanese President of 23.5 million people as he would be to communicate with the democratically elected leader of any nation. He compares Trump's Taiwan call to President Obama's visit to Cuba to hang out with the Castro dictatorship and suggests the dialogue resets a more favorable relationship for the U.S. with China. "...State Department mythology that we have to somehow let the Chinese dictate to us is nonsense... They are not going to be able to intimidate us."