Republicans led by Sen. Mitch McConnell are pressing the Trump administration to release $1.3 billion in military aid to Taiwan and approve a stalled $14 billion arms package, as fears grow that President Donald Trump will make concessions on Taiwan security when he meets this week with Xi Jinping.
The letter, sent Wednesday by McConnell and three other senators, comes as the Chinese leader is expected to press Trump to curb U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and concerns grow in Washington that the president could use security assistance for the island as leverage in negotiations with Beijing. The letter, shared with The Washington Sun, and the delay in sending the aid money to Taiwan had not been previously reported.
The senators, in the letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, questioned why the State Department has not obligated $300 million in foreign military financing that Congress provided for Taiwan in the fiscal 2026 budget and why the Pentagon has not obligated another $1 billion that Congress provided through the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, a program to bolster the island’s defenses. The lawmakers also challenge the administration’s freeze on $14 billion in arms sales to Taiwan.
“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.”
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Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina signed the letter.
Congress has long played a central role in U.S. support for Taiwan, particularly through the Taiwan Relations Act, a 1979 law that committed the U.S. to making defensive weapons and services available to Taiwan after Washington formally switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China.
China hawks are now urging Trump not to let economic concerns overshadow security. Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), in a floor speech Tuesday that criticized Trump’s lavish reception for Xi, called on the president to confront Xi over Taiwan and China’s military coercion of its neighbors.
“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, and whose massive military arsenal is aimed directly at the United States of America.”
Wicker said after leaving the Senate floor that he is “very much in favor” of the administration moving forward with the $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan and formally notifying Congress of its intention to do so.
The dispute between members of Congress and the White House lands at a sensitive moment in Trump’s relationship with China. Taiwan was a major point of contention at Trump and Xi’s last meeting in May, when Xi warned Trump that mishandling the issue could lead to conflict.
Xi is expected to use his White House meeting with Trump on Thursday to push for limits on U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan, Reuters reported this week. Beijing has long opposed American military support for the self-governed island, which China claims as its territory.
At the same time, the Trump administration is prioritizing Chinese investment in the United States, cooperation on artificial intelligence and continued access to critical minerals and rare earths from China that are essential to U.S. commercial and defense manufacturing.
That has raised questions in Taiwan and among its supporters in Washington about whether Trump could hold back security assistance to the island as part of a broader compromise with Beijing.
Michael Pillsbury, who has advised Trump on China, said senior Chinese officials have told him that their top goal for the talks is a U.S. concession on Taiwan independence. But he said they recognize that this is a shift the administration is unlikely to make.
Pillsbury said the officials nevertheless see Trump as more flexible on Taiwan than former President Joe Biden.
“Taiwan leadership is quite worried,” Pillsbury said. “Biden four times said words to the effect of, ‘We have to defend Taiwan.’ … Mr. Trump has not ever said, ‘We have to defend Taiwan.’ They have almost a sense of suspicion that this is too good to be true.”
Trump has said he is open to using the arms package as leverage. In an interview with Fox News after traveling to China in May to meet with Xi, Trump said he was holding the major weapons package for Taiwan “in abeyance,” calling it “a very good negotiating chip for us.”
Foreign military financing provides U.S. grants and loans that international partners can use to buy American-made defense equipment, services and training. In February, Trump signed the consolidated spending bill for 2026, in which Congress directed that at least $300 million be made available for Taiwan.
According to a White House Office of Management and Budget database, Jordan, Israel, Thailand and the Philippines have already received approval for funds from the 2026 foreign military financing budget, while Taiwan was not listed among the recipients.
The administration has missed the deadline for moving the money under the normal process. The funds expire Sept. 30, and the State Department would have had to notify Congress by Sept. 15 to obligate them before then, according to a congressional aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.
Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council, told The Sun that the Taiwan money is part of a wider freeze affecting new U.S. security assistance and arms-sale notifications for Taiwan.
The administration last approved arms sales for Taiwan in December: a $11 billion package, which was the largest by dollar value. There’s been a backlog of proposed sales since then, including Patriot Advanced Capability-3 and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System air defenses.
Delaying or canceling those sales would also complicate another Trump administration goal, according to Hammond-Chambers. Taipei has said that without substantial new purchases of American weapons, it will struggle to increase defense spending to 5% of its gross domestic product by 2030, as Trump has insisted.
“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.”
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