When Vladimir Zelenskyy was attacked in the Oval Office by J.D. Vance for not being sufficiently appreciative of the largesse of the great and powerful Trump, he did the only thing he could. Ukraine needed all the help it could garner from other nations to defend itself against Russia, so as bad as Trump behaved, he had no choice but to try to curry whatever favor he could to keep access to military aid coming. It was, of course, to little avail, but the alternative, telling Trump to shove it, would do nothing to help Ukraine either. Unlike Trump, Zelenskyy put country before ego.

Taiwan now finds itself in a similar position.

Trump on Taiwan: When you look at the odds, China is very, very powerful, big country. That’s a very small island. Think of it, it’s 59 miles away. We’re 9500 miles away. That’s a little bit of a difficult problem. Taiwan was developed because we had presidents that didn’t know… pic.twitter.com/bKhDQ65vTS

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 15, 2026

The United States is committed by an act of Congress to provide weapons to Taiwan. The United States is committed to never negotiate with China over its obligation to provide Taiwan with the weapons it needs to survive. Trump doesn’t care about such things as commitments.

Mr. Trump told reporters on Air Force One after leaving China on Friday that he had discussed the weapons package with China’s president, Xi Jinping, during their summit this past week in Beijing. He was asked in an interview with Fox News whether he would approve the Taiwan deal.

“No, I’m holding that in abeyance and it depends on China,” he said in the interview, which was recorded in Beijing but aired after he left. “It depends.”

“It’s a very good negotiating chip for us, frankly,” he said. “It’s a lot of weapons.”

This reflects the three predominant themes in Trump’s approach to the United States’ approach to international relations. One, that Trump, and only Trump, decides what the United States will and won’t do. Whether it’s go to war or refrain from war, it’s only about Trump. And Congressional Republicans are good with that, having defeated another War Resolution and as reflected by the comments of Senator Lindsey Graham on Meet the Press when asked about our position on China seizing Taiwan by force.

President Trump says, “It’ll be up to me and me alone.” And he’s right about that.

Second is Trump failure to recognize that either acts of Congress, or commitments made by that radical left lunatic president, Ronald Reagan, provide any constraint on his unfettered power to do whatever whim strikes him at any given moment.

In 1982, the Reagan administration made a series of commitments to Taiwan, including one about not consulting with China on arms sales to Taiwan, and for decades it has been understood that Washington would not negotiate the subject with Beijing.

“So what am I going to do?” he said. “Say ‘I don’t want to talk to you about it’? Because I have an agreement that was signed in 1982? No, we discussed arms sales.”

Most people would  respond, “yes, that’s what commitments mean,” and if you fail to honor commitments, one of Trump’s trademarks from his real estate developer days, there is little reason to trust anything you say or do.

The third piece is that Trump sees everything in terms of a transaction. Nothing, but nothing, is done because it’s right or wrong, good or evil. The primary question for Trump is what can he get for it. What could he get from Ukraine? What could he get from companies that needed government approval? What could he get from law firms that he targeted by Executive Order for being friendly toward his hated adversaries? What could he get from China if he hands over Taiwan.

The fact that Trump approaches every issue from the transactional perspective has long been well known. Want approval for a merger? Pay off a frivolous lawsuit or bring Trump a gold doodad, preferably one with a laughable but pretentious title.

Similarly well known is his utter lack of care for democracies, favoring communists, dictators and communist dictators at every turn. It’s been suggested that Trump subscribes to the tripartite sphere vision of the planet, favored by Putin and Xi, where the earth is carved into three groups, with the United States in control of its hemisphere and Russia and China in unchallenged control of theirs. Who gets Europe remains to be seen, but Trump has made it clear that he doesn’t care much for French cuisine or German beer.

Unlike the Trump ballroom or the Arc d’Trump, or the Trump statute garden or the swimming pool blue reflecting pool, or the Trump DC toxic waste dump cum golf course, the loss of Taiwan to China cannot be undone in the aftermath of Trump. Ukraine, to its enormous credit, continues to hold its own, if not gain, in its defense against Russia. It’s unclear whether the same can be said about Taiwan should Trump bargain it away to Xi for a pocketful of mumbles such are promises.