TAIPEI (Taiwan News) —  Donald Trump will continue supporting Taiwan if re-elected president, former U.S. official James Gilmore said at a Taipei think tank event on Saturday (May 4).  

"I believe that President Trump will be supportive of Taiwan when he becomes president. He was in his first term," Gilmore, who was appointed ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe by Trump, said, according to Reuters.

Under Trump’s administration from 2016 to 2020, the U.S. approved the sale of F-16Vs, high-speed anti-radiation missiles, Abrams tanks, Harpoon missiles, and Sea Guardian drones. Trump also signed the Taiwan Travel Act and TAIPEI Act into law, which encouraged more exchanges between U.S. and Taiwan government officials and mandated U.S. advocacy for Taiwan’s international participation, respectively.

Gilmore denied Trump was isolationist but instead was pushing U.S. allies to invest more in their defense. He said he would brief Trump on his Taiwan visit, and relay any messages from Taiwan.

"I fully expect to write a memorandum and submit it to President Trump. What he does with these memos people send him we do not know," he said. "But I have made up my mind that I can be helpful."

Trump is expected to be the Republican nominee for the 2024 U.S. presidential election in November. In 2016, he received a congratulatory phone call from President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) after winning the presidency.