Last week, the first arms sales to Taiwan were authorized by the United States government under the Trump administration. Arms deals with Taiwan are nothing new, and they have been semi-regularly occurring since the Carter administration, but it is still a topic I find worth writing about because it highlights a continual theme in the embryonic stages of Trump’s presidency: an affirmation of the status quo and a repeal of his isolationist rhetoric that appealed to many of his voters.
In my opinion, Trump has made four major blunders thus far in his foreign policy, the area of his poorest performances: the Syrian airstrikes (along with continual provocation of Assad’s forces); dropping the Mother of All Bombs on the ISIS tunnels in Afghanistan; ratifying Montenegro’s petition to join NATO; and selling arms to Taiwan.
Trump lost a valuable opportunity by continuing the business-as-usual weapons dealings in areas of extreme conflict, such as Taiwan. If Trump truly cared about establishing a better relationship with China, he could’ve opted to cease all weapons sales to Taiwan in exchange for cooperation in trade and/or help dealing with North Korea. He could’ve brokered a deal; after all, he is the king of deals, right?
Trump isn’t yielding the results his voters expected; in other words, he’s a true politician now!