Trump Again Mentions Talking to Taiwan's President, Making Arms Sales a Global Topic
Former U.S. President Donald Trump has twice in one week publicly mentioned he would speak with Taiwan's president regarding arms sales, once again drawing high international attention to U.S.-Taiwan relations. Trump had previously caused a media frenzy before his inauguration when he accepted a congratulatory call from then-President Tsai Ing-wen. If a call with President Lai Ching-te were to happen, it would be the first conversation between the leaders of the two sides since the U.S. severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979, but Trump's true intentions remain unclear.
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- 📰 Published: May 21, 2026 at 10:04
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- 🤖 AI Analyzed: May 21, 2026 at 10:42 (10 min after Collected)
Former U.S. President Donald Trump has twice in one week publicly mentioned that he would talk with the President of Taiwan about arms sales, once again drawing intense international scrutiny to U.S.-Taiwan relations. Before his inauguration for his first term, Trump had accepted a congratulatory call from then-President Tsai Ing-wen, which created a media sensation at the time.
On December 2, 2016, Donald Trump, who had unexpectedly won the U.S. presidency, accepted a congratulatory call from then-President Tsai Ing-wen. After Taiwanese and American media successively reported on it and Trump himself confirmed it in a tweet, major U.S. mainstream media outlets heavily criticized him for not understanding international politics and the complex U.S.-China-Taiwan relationship.
This historic conversation, which broke the precedent of no direct calls between a Republic of China president and a U.S. president-elect since the severance of U.S.-Taiwan diplomatic relations in 1979, lasted about 11 minutes and shook the global diplomatic community. However, the biggest impact was felt by China's embassy and consulates in the U.S.
Beijing quickly mobilized its contacts in New York and Washington D.C. to find direct channels to key figures in Trump's camp. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida in April of the following year, where Trump announced during a dinner that he had "ordered the bombing of Syria."
How the Trump-Tsai call was arranged was a matter of much speculation at the time. Both American international political commentator Josh Rogin's 2021 book "Chaos Under Heaven" and former senior diplomat and national security official David Lee's book published last year, "Ho-kuang Tung-ch'en," point to Randall Schriver, a former Pentagon official who was then the chairman of the Washington think tank "Project 2049 Institute," as the mastermind.
In late 2016, global leaders were eager to contact Trump, who was then a political novice, to understand his views on international affairs.
The New York Times once reported that the Chinese side "found the right person," with then-Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai and Trump's son-in-law, then-White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, interacting closely after being introduced. However, the stable U.S.-China relationship was short-lived. After Trump's return visit to Beijing in late 2017, he launched a large-scale trade war against China the following year.
After the U.S. severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan, both sides are not supposed to have public official interactions according to the U.S.'s own One China policy. If Trump were to call President Lai about arms sales, it would be the first conversation between the heads of state of the two countries since 1979. However, the outside world finds it difficult to ascertain Trump's actual intentions in communicating directly with Taiwan.
Josh Rogin, who reported on the Trump-Tsai call for The Washington Post at the time, tweeted on X today that this is the second time Trump has mentioned a call with Taiwan's President Lai, and that nobody knows his true meaning.
Rogin wrote, "I think it’s great. The pearl-clutchers will complain this will make Beijing mad, but the primary purpose of our China policy is not to make Beijing happy."
On December 2, 2016, Donald Trump, who had unexpectedly won the U.S. presidency, accepted a congratulatory call from then-President Tsai Ing-wen. After Taiwanese and American media successively reported on it and Trump himself confirmed it in a tweet, major U.S. mainstream media outlets heavily criticized him for not understanding international politics and the complex U.S.-China-Taiwan relationship.
This historic conversation, which broke the precedent of no direct calls between a Republic of China president and a U.S. president-elect since the severance of U.S.-Taiwan diplomatic relations in 1979, lasted about 11 minutes and shook the global diplomatic community. However, the biggest impact was felt by China's embassy and consulates in the U.S.
Beijing quickly mobilized its contacts in New York and Washington D.C. to find direct channels to key figures in Trump's camp. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida in April of the following year, where Trump announced during a dinner that he had "ordered the bombing of Syria."
How the Trump-Tsai call was arranged was a matter of much speculation at the time. Both American international political commentator Josh Rogin's 2021 book "Chaos Under Heaven" and former senior diplomat and national security official David Lee's book published last year, "Ho-kuang Tung-ch'en," point to Randall Schriver, a former Pentagon official who was then the chairman of the Washington think tank "Project 2049 Institute," as the mastermind.
In late 2016, global leaders were eager to contact Trump, who was then a political novice, to understand his views on international affairs.
The New York Times once reported that the Chinese side "found the right person," with then-Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai and Trump's son-in-law, then-White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, interacting closely after being introduced. However, the stable U.S.-China relationship was short-lived. After Trump's return visit to Beijing in late 2017, he launched a large-scale trade war against China the following year.
After the U.S. severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan, both sides are not supposed to have public official interactions according to the U.S.'s own One China policy. If Trump were to call President Lai about arms sales, it would be the first conversation between the heads of state of the two countries since 1979. However, the outside world finds it difficult to ascertain Trump's actual intentions in communicating directly with Taiwan.
Josh Rogin, who reported on the Trump-Tsai call for The Washington Post at the time, tweeted on X today that this is the second time Trump has mentioned a call with Taiwan's President Lai, and that nobody knows his true meaning.
Rogin wrote, "I think it’s great. The pearl-clutchers will complain this will make Beijing mad, but the primary purpose of our China policy is not to make Beijing happy."