U.S. President Donald Trump on Selling Weapons to China: "It May Be a Good Idea, but We Didn't Discuss It"

[Financial News] U.S. President Donald Trump, who faced controversy over allegedly proposing the sale of U.S.-made weapons to China, said he had made no such proposal. Trump said the idea of selling weapons itself "may be a good idea."
According to CNN, Trump met with reporters at the White House on the 28th (local time) and responded to remarks by David Perdue, the U.S. ambassador to China. "China? Are you talking about Taiwan?" Trump said, adding, "I've never heard that. I'll have to ask him directly."
He continued, "They may want to buy them, perhaps, because we make better equipment. Maybe it could be a good idea." He added, "But we did not discuss it." Trump also said, "He may have been referring to Taiwan."
Perdue appeared on Fox News on the 27th and was asked about delays in U.S. arms exports to Taiwan. When asked whether the United States was postponing the exports out of consideration for Chinese President Xi Jinping, he stressed that it was not. Perdue explained that Trump "has continued to say, 'We are selling weapons to other countries around the world.'" He then claimed, "The president actually even asked Xi Jinping whether he would like to buy U.S. weapons someday."
Perdue did not specify whether the remarks were made during Trump's visit to China in May or during Xi Jinping's visit to the United States this month.
Trump has focused on overseas arms sales since his first term and continued the same policy after beginning his second term last year. In his Fox News interview, Perdue emphasized that the United States approved $11.1 billion worth of arms sales to Taiwan last December, the largest amount ever. That exceeded the $8.4 billion approved by former U.S. President Joe Biden over four years. The Trump administration went further by drawing up a plan to sell Taiwan $14 billion worth of weapons, or about 19 trillion won. The U.S. Congress had already completed its preliminary review in January. However, Trump has continued to delay approval of the sale.
Current U.S. law prohibits the sale of U.S.-made weapons to China. The White House and the U.S. Department of State subsequently said in comments sent to The New York Times that "the United States has no plans to sell weapons to China."
Meanwhile, Trump described the summit with Xi Jinping on the 24th as "an excellent meeting" and said, "If I were to rate it on a scale from 0 to 10, I'd give it a 12." Regarding the war with Iran, he said, "We will win," adding, "I think there will be a conclusion either way, and it will happen quite quickly."
 

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