Former CIA Director John Brennan sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s approach to Taiwan, saying the president views the island as a negotiable asset rather than a cornerstone of American national security. Brennan made the remarks Monday during an appearance on MS NOW’s “Deadline,” as reported by Breitbart News.
According to Brennan, Trump’s posture reflects a broader absence of principle in how the administration handles longstanding alliances. He said the president “has no concept of exactly just how important Taiwan is to the United States.”
A ‘Real Estate Developer’ Approach
Brennan framed Trump’s thinking in terms of deal-making rather than strategy. “It reflects the lack of principles or American values on the part of Donald Trump,” Brennan said. “I’m sure he sees Taiwan as simply an island, and one that can be, in fact, negotiated. And he sees it as a good bargaining chip.”
He added that this is the instinct of “a real estate developer” — someone who “will do, is try to get the best deal.” But Brennan argued that the calculation misses far more than it captures, pointing to the island’s strategic weight for the United States and to a principle he said Washington has stood behind “for many, many years, that we’re not going to allow China to just swallow up Taiwan.”
The comments come amid heightened attention to U.S.-China relations and the status of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory. Successive American administrations have maintained a policy of strategic ambiguity over how the U.S. would respond to a Chinese attempt to take the island by force, while continuing to sell defensive weapons to Taipei. Brennan’s critique suggests he believes Trump has abandoned that careful stance in favor of a transactional one.
Signals to Beijing — and Taipei
Brennan’s central concern was what he described as Trump broadcasting a willingness to trade the U.S.-Taiwan relationship for concessions elsewhere. “But here Donald Trump is saying publicly to China, to Taiwan and others, that we’re willing to think about, in fact, trading this partnership that we’ve had with Taiwan for so many years in order to get something else,” Brennan said.
Such signals, in Brennan’s telling, undermine the credibility of American commitments and invite miscalculation by adversaries and allies alike. He did not specify which remarks by the president he was referring to, and Breitbart’s account did not identify a particular statement or policy decision that prompted the segment.
An Indictment of Trump’s Negotiating Style
Brennan went further, arguing that the president’s transactional worldview makes him a weak negotiator rather than a strong one. “So again, he is not a good negotiator at all because he doesn’t understand just how interconnected this globe is and how dependent U.S. national security is on a lot of these relationships and alliances that have been built up over the course of many decades,” he said.
The former intelligence chief’s argument rests on the idea that alliances are not favors to be traded but infrastructure that supports American power. Taiwan sits at the center of that infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific, both as a democratic partner and as a linchpin of the semiconductor supply chain. Treating it as a bargaining chip, Brennan suggested, misreads what is actually at stake.
Brennan, who led the CIA under President Barack Obama and previously served as a senior counterterrorism adviser, has been a frequent critic of Trump since leaving government. His comments Monday echo a broader argument from national security veterans in both parties who worry that a deal-oriented foreign policy erodes the trust on which deterrence depends.
Whether Trump’s approach amounts to a genuine shift in Taiwan policy or is better understood as rhetorical pressure in a broader negotiation with Beijing remains a matter of dispute. The White House has not responded to Brennan’s characterization. But the exchange highlights a live debate in Washington over whether American commitments in Asia are fixed obligations or variables to be renegotiated — a question with consequences well beyond the island itself.
For now, Brennan’s message was unambiguous: in his view, the president is trading away something he does not understand, and the cost will be measured in American security, not in the terms of a single deal.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2026/09/28/brennan-trump-has-no-concept-of-taiwans-importance-to-the-u-s/