An interview with The Wall Street Journal is as good a place as any for former President Donald Trump to declare that Xi Jinping, dictator of the People’s Republic of China, wouldn’t dare invade the Republic of China if and when Trump is again president because Xi “knows I’m f— crazy” (“Weekend Interview: Trump Tangles With the Journal’s Editors,” James Taranto, October 18, 2024).
Mr. Gigot asks how Mr. Trump would persuade Xi Jinping to stand down from a blockade of Taiwan.
“Oh, very easy,” the former president says. “I had a very strong relationship with him. He was actually a really good, I don’t want to say friend—I don’t want to act foolish, ‘he was my friend’—but I got along with him great. He stayed at Mar-a-Lago with me, so we got to know each other great. He’s a very fierce person.”
That visit coincided with the April 2017 U.S. bombing of Syria, where China reportedly had a military presence. Mr. Trump says he decided to tell Mr. Xi about the bombing over dessert: “I said, ‘President, we’ve just shot 58 missiles into Syria to an airport that’s housing a lot of new planes. Your people are not at risk, but they’re on their way right now.’ He hears it and he goes, ‘Repeat.’…I said, ‘You speak English, don’t you?’ ” Until then, the two men had communicated only with the aid of an interpreter.
“I repeated it, and he understood it. He sat like this, he’s a good poker player. First it looked like he was furious, right? I repeated it again. ‘Oh, OK.’ Then we got back to—he was pretty cool. But he’s a fierce guy.”
Mr. Trump returns to Mr. Gigot’s question: “I would say: If you go into Taiwan, I’m sorry to do this, I’m going to tax you”—meaning impose tariffs—“at 150% to 200%.” He might even shut down trade altogether.
Mr. Gigot: “Would you use military force against a blockade on Taiwan?”
Mr. Trump: “I wouldn’t have to, because he respects me and he knows I’m f— crazy.”
Which doesn’t really tell us what Trump would do if Chinese military planes and ships not only huff and puff in the vicinity Taiwan—as they always do—but also try to conquer Taiwan by blockading it or bombing it or both. Tariffs won’t win a war.
