Why Has Trump Stopped Selling Weapons to Taiwan? |
Foreign Policy
Why Has Trump Stopped Selling Weapons to Taiwan?
The administration is avoiding conflict with China to focus on war in the Middle East. Taiwan’s democracy hangs in the balance.
Matthew Petti | 5.26.2026 4:28 PM
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U.S. President Donald Trump greets Chinese Vice President Han Zheng at Beijing International Airport on May 13, 2026. (THE WHITE HOUSE/UPI/Newscom)
Before he became the Trump administration's chief military planner, Elbridge Colby had a single-minded mission: to muster the resources of the United States in defense of Taiwan. "Taiwan would not be the end of Beijing's ambitions. So the question is, how do we deter China from attacking Taiwan and not just in some distant future, but as early as the coming years?" he said in a 2023 debate, arguing that U.S. commitments in other parts of the world (such as Ukraine and the Middle East) were a dangerous waste of military resources.
More than a year into Donald Trump's second presidency, it's safe to say that the administration is doing the opposite of what Colby recommended. In a congressional hearing last week, acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao said that the U.S. is........