Donald Trump and Joe Biden agree: surrender Taiwan

By Robert M. Levy

There is a national security emergency! Or so they tell us. Modern America runs on silicon chips. Without access to those chips, the domestic economy would collapse. And, 50% of all such chips are made in Taiwan.

Now, Taiwan is under constant siege by China. Joe Biden reiterated many times over, if for no other reason than to protect America’s supply of silicon chips, the United States would come to the military defense of Taiwan. But he and his administration were lying.

The very basis for Biden’s $57.2 billion CHIPS Act was to “gut” the Taiwanese chip industry. It was a realization that the United States could not fight a nuclear-armed China any better now than it could when China had no nuclear weapons and confronted American-led forces in Korea. Defending Taiwan against a modern China is more bluster than reality. As the argument goes, the only rational course is to protect the American chip industry by eliminating American industrial ties to Taiwan. That was Biden’s goal in the CHIPS Act. That is the continued goal of the Trump administration today.

While riding on Air Force One on Trump’s return to China, the President made several significant statements. First, he told Fox News interviewer Bret Baier that his policy on chips was (consistent with that of Biden’s) to repatriate chip production to the United States before any war disrupted that supply chain. Trump also told Baier that Taiwanese independence would not be in the best interest of the United States. This was at least a partial concession to the People’s Republic which has long opposed independence by that island.

Finally, during that interview, Trump assured Taiwan that China would not invade on his watch. Still, he cautioned that invasion under future presidents was very possible. In other words, President Trump was signaling to China to be patient. American Policy on Taiwan was becoming more realistic.

Policy makers have known for decades that China would not feel “whole” unless it unified with its traditional borders. What is going on now is no different from the Chinese playbook which unified Hong Kong. In 1997, Great Britain had less taste for retaining its colony than it had for conflict. After much “ diplomacy,” the U.K. gave up its control of Hong Kong for just a few promises of democracy.

Of course, none of those promises were kept. Democracy advocates were imprisoned and China took full control. Similarly, if the United States will not fight for Taiwan, the same thing will happen. China is counting on it.

The Chinese have also observed the conduct of the American public with regard to the War in Iran. After a few months and only a one dollar per gallon hike in gasoline costs, the American public became violently opposed to that war. A war with China over Taiwan will take much greater national fortitude. The Chinese believe America doesn’t have it.

The Chinese also understand history. Even when American patriotism was more evident than it is today, the United States “lost” its defense of “Free” China to Mao’s Communist Revolution of 1949. The Korean War, starting in 1950, created a similar experience with “Red” Chinese troops fighting America and its “UN forces” to a stalemate. In fact, the United States became so “spooked” from its experience in 1949 and 1950, it avoided invading China’s North Vietnam neighbor in the 1960s.

The Trump administration understands that reality, too. Its solution to avoid war with China and to create as little pain as possible for the American public is to slowly withdraw American dependence from Taiwan and allow the desires of China to take their course.

There is a theory within the Trump administration that America should go back to the Monroe Doctrine as its primary theory of foreign policy. That policy perspective, primarily led by Vice President JD Vance, suggests that the United States can no longer try to control (if it ever could) the events that shape the world. So, the theory goes, it would be best for America to solidly control the riches and minerals found in “The Americas” rather than expansively take advantage of all resources from the Philippines to the Middle East.

I oppose such “isolationism“ as a surrender to both communism and radical Islam. But I also understand that the United States governs as a democracy. Being a superpower requires a universal commitment from a people who, by elections, govern themselves.

Unless the American people can recover their steadfast commitment to American exceptionalism, that same steadfast commitment which was made between World War II and the early part of the 21st-century, a slow withdrawal from American world dominance may be the most appropriate solution for the American people. Taiwan may be the next introduction to that reality.

Unless Americans are ready to “ask not what your country can do for you,” then, to save Taiwan, they are not ready to endure the tough sacrifices that their country might require of them. As such, a recommitment to the spirit of patriotism and anti-communism may be the only hope for the Taiwanese people…the last hope to “keep Free China free.”

Robert M. Levy

RLevy.Substack.com

PsyschodadRobert@gmail.com

Robert M. Levy grew up in Moore County and graduated from Pinecrest High School. He earned a BA in history and sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where his honors thesis on the Wilmington Rebellion of 1898 became part of the university’s library collection.

Admitted to the California State Bar in 1978, Levy practiced law for 40 years in California and Maryland, focusing on family and criminal law, including work with juvenile offenders and abused children. His writing on affirmative action appeared in the San Fernando Valley Law Review, and he authored Divorce: A Cynical Experience. He later earned a North Carolina teaching certificate from UNC Charlotte and taught high school social studies across Moore County.

Levy has served as chairman of the Moore County School Board, president of the North Carolina Electoral College, chairman of the Moore County Republican Party, and a columnist for The Pilot in Southern Pines. He lives in Pinehurst with his wife, Linda, and they have three children and four grandchildren.

May 17, 2026

Republished with permission.

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