Trump weighs Taiwan call, arms sale amid Xi warnings

A delayed call to Taiwan's president and a $14 billion arms sale have become a test of how far Donald Trump is willing to push Beijing over an island that Xi Jinping warned could become a “very dangerous situation” if mishandled.

Trump said on May 20 and again on May 21 that he would speak with Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, but Taiwan’s foreign minister said as of May 25 that no planning talks had taken place. A direct call would be unprecedented for a sitting U.S. president and Taiwan’s leader since Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, turning the pause itself into a signal of how carefully the White House is trying to manage the risk of miscalculation.

The stakes go beyond protocol. Trump said he was still deciding whether to approve a delayed $14 billion U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, and he described the package as a possible “negotiating chip” in talks with Beijing. The U.S. Congress approved the package in January 2026, and lawmakers from both parties have urged Trump not to delay the sale, arguing that Taiwan needs defensive weapons to deter Chinese aggression.

Xi made Taiwan a central issue during Trump’s trip to China earlier this month, warning that mishandling the issue could lead to clashes or conflict and put the broader U.S.-China relationship in jeopardy. Trump later said he had discussed Taiwan with Xi during the Beijing summit, underscoring that the island remains one of the most combustible points in the relationship between Washington and Beijing.

Lai has said he would tell Trump that China is undermining regional peace and that no country has the right to “annex” Taiwan. Taiwan’s leadership has been waiting for clarity from Washington even as Trump weighs whether to pair a diplomatic gesture with a major weapons decision that Beijing would almost certainly view as provocation.

The backdrop is the Taiwan Relations Act, enacted in 1979, which requires the United States to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character and says any effort to resolve Taiwan’s future by non-peaceful means would be a matter of grave U.S. concern. Trump’s maneuvering also recalled his 2016 call with then-Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, the first direct contact between a U.S. president or president-elect and a Taiwanese leader since 1979, a precedent that still hangs over every move Washington makes on Taiwan.