Mitch McConnell, GOP senators put fresh pressure on Trump before Xi meeting
WASHINGTON, DC: Senator Mitch McConnell returned to the Senate last week and is now leading three Republicans in pressing President Donald Trump over stalled security assistance for Taiwan.
McConnell, who is retiring in January, was absent for 92 days after weeks of hospitalization and uncertainty surrounding his health.
The senators sent a letter on Wednesday, September 23, to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as Trump prepares to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Mitch McConnell presses Trump over $1.3 billion in Taiwan aid
McConnell and Republican Senators John Cornyn, Lisa Murkowski, and Thom Tillis questioned why the administration has not obligated $1.3 billion in security assistance approved by Congress for Taiwan, as per the Washington Sun.
They also challenged a freeze on $14 billion in proposed arms sales.
The letter asks why $300 million in foreign military financing from the fiscal 2026 budget remains unobligated and why another $1 billion provided through the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative has not been released.
“We are concerned by President Trump’s description of Taiwan as ‘a very good negotiating chip’ in engagements with Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party,” the senators wrote.
“It is difficult to imagine how the United States might credibly project influence in the Indo-Pacific if the price of keeping up diplomatic appearances is denying our partners key deterrent capabilities,” the letter said.
The pressure comes as Xi is expected to push Trump to curb US arms sales to Taiwan. Concerns have grown in Washington that Trump could use security assistance for Taiwan as leverage in negotiations with Beijing.
Roger Wicker urges Trump to keep Taiwan on the agenda
Senator Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticized Trump's reception for Xi in a Senate floor speech on Tuesday and urged the president to confront him over Taiwan and China's military coercion of its neighbors, the report said.
“I know the president tends to discuss trade and artificial intelligence with the Chinese leadership, and rightfully so; perhaps some progress will be made,” Wicker said.
“But during every minute of dialogue, our commander-in-chief should keep in mind that his guest is a brutal, unelected and oppressive dictator who seeks to dominate his neighbors,” he added.
Wicker said he was “very much in favor” of the administration moving forward with the $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan.
Trump has previously described the arms package as a negotiating tool.
In an interview with Fox News after traveling to China in May, he said he was holding it “in abeyance,” calling it “a very good negotiating chip for us.”
Stalled arms sales add pressure on Taiwan security
The administration last approved arms sales for Taiwan in December, a package valued at $11 billion.
Proposed sales since then include Patriot Advanced Capability-3 and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System air defenses.
The State Department has missed the deadline for moving the $300 million in foreign military financing through the normal process, the report stated.
The funds expire September 30, and a congressional aide said the department would have had to notify Congress by September 15 to obligate them before then.
Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council, said the Taiwan money is part of a wider freeze affecting new US security assistance and arms-sale notifications for Taiwan, the outlet cited.
“The Taiwan government is pointing out: Look, we budgeted this stuff on the back of your assurance that the sales will be processed this year,” Hammond-Chambers said.
“In Taiwan, if budgeted money does not get spent by the end of the year, it goes back to their treasury, right? It’s lost money,” he added.
