‘I Haven’t Seen It’: Mike Johnson Won’t React to Trump’s Dodge on Defending Taiwan

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was asked by a reporter on Friday to react to President Donald Trump’s response to whether or not he’d defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion.

“On foreign policy, should President Trump have been more committal when it comes to Taiwan during his visit to China?” asked a reporter.

“I haven’t seen it. I’ve been really busy the last couple of days, so I haven’t seen the exact readout on how that discussion went,” replied Johnson, who regularly feigns ignorance when pressed on Trump statements. The Louisiana Republican added, “I’ve heard a couple of little comments offhand about what he said. He feels like they had a very productive meeting. They talked about some really important issues, and I’m awaiting to sit down with him and go through it in detail.”

“We had an exchange of texts last night, but he’s on the way back now, I think, and we’ll sit down and go through it and we’ll find out. Look, we’ve always been concerned, and we’ve made America’s interests very clear—our position on Taiwan. They need to stay independent and secure there, and we have an interest in that, as does everybody around the world because of chip manufacturing and other reasons there. I’m sure they discussed that, but I don’t know the details of it because I haven’t talked to the president yet,” Johnson replied.

Trump spoke to reporters on his way home from China about what he told China’s leader Xi Jinping about Taiwan.

“I don’t want to say. I’m not going to say that,” Trump responded when asked if he’d defend Taiwan. “There’s only one person that knows that. You know who it is? Me. I’m the only person. That question was asked to me today by President Xi. I said, ‘I don’t talk about those things.’”

“He asked you today? He asked you if you would send troops?” a reporter pressed.

“He asked me if I’d defend them. I said, ‘I don’t talk about that,’” Trump insisted.

Watch the clip above.

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