WASHINGTON - Two leading proponents of reduced U.S. trade with China are among President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for three of the top roles at the State Department, Trump announced.
However, one of the choices -– Michael Anton, who Trump selected to serve as director of policy planning –- has previously argued it is not in U.S. interests to defend Taiwan from an invasion by China.
In a series of three posts on his Truth Social media platform on Sunday, Trump announced the appointment of Anton and his choices for deputy U.S. secretary of state and State Department counselor, who is the top policy advisor to the U.S. secretary of state.
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Christopher Landau –- who served as Trump’s ambassador to Mexico during his first term as president -– was nominated for the role of deputy secretary of state, while conservative think tank staffer Michael Needham was named the next State Department counselor.
Only Landau, as the choice for deputy secretary of state, will require confirmation by the soon-to-be Republican-led Senate. If confirmed, Landau would serve as deputy to Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who Trump last month nominated for secretary of state. Rubio also needs Senate confirmation.
On his social media site, Trump praised the trio as “America First” diplomats who would aid Rubio in pushing his foreign policy forward.
As ambassador to Mexico, Landau had “worked tirelessly with our team to reduce illegal migration,” he wrote, while Needham is a key ally of Rubio and a “leader in the America First Movement.”
Anton, meanwhile, has “spent the last eight years explaining what an America First foreign policy truly means,” the president-elect wrote.
Mix of views on China
Trump’s nomination of Landau as deputy secretary of state points to his priority on reducing illegal immigration from Mexico, with Landau recently penning a lengthy post on the social media site X declaring global migration to be the “next big” global challenge.
However, Needham and Anton have a stronger focus on China.
Needham has backed legislation introduced by a Rep. John Moolenaar, a Republican from Michigan and the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, that would revoke China’s normal trade status with America.
In line with Trump’s trade policy, the bill would legislate a series of tariffs on all goods coming from China, ending a more than two decade policy of granting it open trade access to U.S. markets.
In a Nov. 14 press release from Molenaar, Needham said the change was needed to end China’s “exploitation of our country.”
“For decades, China has exploited free markets and preyed on American industry, workers, and communities,” Needham was quoted as saying in the press release. “Giving China permanent normal trade relations was a mistake and one that needs to be corrected.”
Chinese officials have said since Trump’s election that they are prepared to negotiate on trade with the coming administration but hope the U.S. sticks to its historical commitment to free trade.
Anton, whose role as director of policy planning would put him in charge of developing U.S. strategic policy, has expressed similar views as Needham on the need to reduce trade with China.
But the former White House official has also argued against a U.S. response if China follows through on threats to invade Taiwan.
Taiwan, he wrote for the conservative Federalist website in 2021, is far more important to Beijing than to Washington, warning China may even resort to nuclear warfare if a cross-Pacific conflict broke out.
Trump, for his part, has remained ambiguous on his commitment to deploying U.S. forces for Taiwan’s defense, breaking from President Joe Biden’s repeated insistence that America would defend it.
The president-elect has said both that Taiwan needs to pay more if it wants continued defense guarantees — and that Chinese President Xi Jinping would not “dare” invade the island while he is in office.
Edited by Malcolm Foster.