After meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing this week, President Donald Trump was asked by the press on Air Force One if the U.S. would defend Taiwan if China invaded.
Trump said, “I don’t want to say. That question was asked to me today by President Xi. I said, ‘I don’t talk about it.’”
[NOTE: The Trump administration has been holding up a $14 billion weapons package to Taiwan, which was approved by Congress in January. There is bipartisan concern among lawmakers including Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) that Trump is willing to make concessions to Xi over Taiwan’s defense, despite China’s repeated threats to take the democratic island nation by force.]
SEN. SHAHEEN: What we are hearing from our sources is the President does not want to notice the arms sale to Taiwan before he goes to China. Well, what better time to notice it?
Because that sends a very strong message that China should keep its mitts off Taiwan. pic.twitter.com/46xd5n8x59
— Senate Foreign Relations Committee (@SFRCdems) May 11, 2026
After the China trip, Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC News: “I think China’s preference is probably to have Taiwan willingly voluntarily join them.”
Liberal activist Joshua Reed Eakle responded to Rubio’s comments: “This is the Trump administration laying the groundwork to abandon Taiwan, just like they did with Ukraine. Authoritarians around the world will celebrate.”
NYU history professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a scholar focused on fascism and authoritarian leaders, and an advisor to Protect Democracy, also replied: “The ‘reunification’ scam. Also, a perennial fantasy of abusers is that their prey want to submit to them.”
The “reunification” scam. Also, a perennial fantasy of abusers is that their prey want to submit to them. https://t.co/q2nPoVOgBk
— Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat) May 15, 2026
Also in the interview above, Rubio said the word “reunification” is Xi’s and that Xi believes reunification “must happen at some point.”
Rubio added of the U.S. view: “We think it would be terrible mistake to force that through force…there would be repercussions for that, globally, not just from the United States.”