In a June 25 interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, published Tuesday, Trump said: “I know the people very well and I respect them very much. They took almost 100% of our chip business. I think Taiwan should pay us for security.
Asked about Trump’s comment at a Bloomberg roundtable on the sidelines of the Republican convention, O’Brien said he believed Trump was implying that Taiwan should contribute more to its own security.
“They need to increase spending to take care of the PRC and the CCP, and we can help them, we can be a part of that,” O’Brien told reporters, referring to the People’s Republic of China and the Communist Party of China. “I think what President Trump is saying is that we have to share this burden.”
He suggested that China would need to spend at least 5% of GDP on military forces to keep up, but added that the amount was a rough estimate.
Although O’Brien is not part of Trump’s campaign and has made it clear that he is expressing his personal opinion, he remains in regular contact with the former president on national security matters.
(Reporting by Graeme Slattery, Michael Martina and Simon Lewis)
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