President Donald Trump is keeping open the possibility of speaking directly with Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te— even after Beijing has publicly urged him not to.
WorldPresident Donald Trump arrives to speak to reporters aboard Air Force One en route from Joint Base Andrews, Md. , to Eau Claire, Wis. , Friday, June 5, 2026.
FILE - In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te speaks during a press conference on"Taiwan-U.S. Economic Prosperity Partnership" in Taipei, Taiwan on Feb. 3, 2026. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One en route from Joint Base Andrews, Md. , to Eau Claire, Wis. , Friday, June 5, 2026.
President Donald Trump arrives to speak to reporters aboard Air Force One en route from Joint Base Andrews, Md. , to Eau Claire, Wis. , Friday, June 5, 2026. on Friday indicated that he may still speak with Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te — even after China has publicly urged him not to directly engage with the leader of the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own.
The U.S. president on Friday suggested that a call with the Taiwanese leader is still in play.
“I’ll always talk to him,” Trump told reporters when asked if he still intended on calling Lai. Such a call would mark the first direct dialogue between sitting American and Taiwanese presidents in many decades, and Beijing has discouraged Trump against such an engagement.
The Chinese embassy in Washington in a statement to the Associated Press this week said that kind of phone call could undermine progress in the delicate U.S.-China relationship and urged the Republican administration to “handle the Taiwan question with utmost prudence” and “avoid sending wrong signals” to officials in the democratically run island that China views as a breakaway province. Trump has raised the idea of a direct engagement with Lai even as he's been more circumspect about whether he'll move forward with a major arms package for Taiwan after hearing concerns about it from Xi in Beijing.
Congress greenlit the arms deal in January but it still needs Trump's approval,is the most important issue in ties between China and the U.S., and that the two nations will “have clashes and even conflicts” without proper handling of the matter, according to Chinese officials. Trump’s discussion with Xi about the arms sales to Taiwan seemed out of step with the U.S. policy principles known as the Six Assurances.
The nonbinding principles, formulated in 1982 under President Ronald Reagan, have helped guide the U.S. relationship with Taipei, according to analysts. The second of the Six Assurances states that the U.S. “did not agree to consult with the People’s Republic of China on arms sales to Taiwan. ” But Trump’s rhetoric has added a more foggy dynamic to the U.S.-Taiwan relationship, said Craig Singleton, a China expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
“Trump’s comments about Taiwan arms sales as a negotiating chip, combined with uncertainty around a possible Lai call, have created more ambiguity than Taipei would like,” Singleton said. “The real test is not the rhetoric. It is whether the pending arms package moves, and on what timeline.
”If the call were to happen, Lai has said he would emphasize to Trump that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are crucial for global security, and make the case that China was acting as the “destroyer” of the strait’s peace. Lai said he also would tell Trump that Taiwan’s increasing defense budget was a response to threats, and purchases of U.S. arms would be an essential means to safeguard the strait’s stability.
In 1979, Washington ended diplomatic ties with Taiwan as part of recognizing the People’s Republic of China, and the Chinese have reacted strongly after other engagements by senior U.S. leaders with Taiwan’s leadership.policy, recognizes the Chinese position that Taiwan is part of China, while still allowing for informal U.S. relations with the self-governing island. At the same time, the U.S. has long agreed to ensure Taipei has the resources to defend itself though Washington hasAfter Trump's Friday comments, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington reiterated its position that it intends to “maintain close contact” with the U.S. on arms sales and other issues.
“We will leave it up to the U.S. to announce if there’s any arrangements for President Trump to speak with President Lai,” the office said in a statement. China would view a phone call between Trump and Lai as more provocative than moving forward with the proposed arms sale to Taiwan, said Edgard Kagan, a former U.S. ambassador to Malaysia and senior State Department official handling East Asia policy issues under Trump and President Joe Biden.
Kagan added that it was notable that Trump continues to publicly state that such a call is a possibility after China had warned the U.S. administration against a Trump-Lai engagement. If Trump bypasses a phone call with Lai, he may create the space to move forward with a new arms sales for Taipei while dulling the blowback from Beijing, said Kagan, who is now the China Studies chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“This could give him the room to announce an arms sale, defuse the criticism that the U.S. is turning its back on Taiwan, and do it in a way that leaves the Chinese feeling there was some respect for their views,” Kagan added. Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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