Ivan Kanapathy, a longtime China hawk, is a top Asia adviser at the National Security Council at a time when the Trump administration has been particularly conciliatory with Beijing. It’s a tough time to be a China hawk inside the White House. Ivan Kanapathy probably knows that better than most.
Kanapathy, the senior director for Asia at the National Security Council, has devoted his career in Washington to warning of China’s expanding military footprint and arguing for the U.S. to prioritize defending Taiwan. But halfway through Trump’s second term, that viewpoint is losing out. Trump has upended decades of U.S. support for Taiwan during his second term, delaying $14 billion in arms sales to the self-governing island and throwing doubt on whether the U.S. would jump to Taiwan’s defense if China were to invade.
He is a crucial member of President Trump’s national security team,” Kelly said. The White House told POLITICO that Kanapathy declined to be interviewed. As Trump hosts Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington this week, it is inevitable that the issue of China’s claim of sovereignty over Taiwan comes up.
If Trump doesn’t raise it, Xi is expected to. How Trump responds is important for not just Taiwan but other regional powers — who are watching closely to see if they feel they can still count on the U.S. to defend the region against Beijing. And if Trump isn’t listening to those inside of his administration who could help him navigate that tension, he could further antagonize Asian allies that are already reconsidering their longstanding security partnerships with the U.S. — including how much they’re willing to step into its shoes as a counterweight to Beijing’s increasingly aggressive military footprint in the region.
In his role at the NSC, Kanapathy would generally be expected to be involved in helping Trump hit the right balance in his messaging on Taiwan. It’s unclear if — or how hard — Kanapathy is pushing, but Trump’s policy is sharply different from the views Kanapathy has expressed publicly in the past. The individual pointed to the delay in the Taiwan arms sale and the administration’s opposition to public appearances by Taiwan’s president in the U.S. as prime examples.
The first person who knows Kanapathy believes that his views haven’t changed, but that he’s sidelined. The White House said in a statement that Kanapathy and other NSC officials’ role is to “provide options for the president’s consideration” but Trump “is the final decisionmaker and it is up to the foreign policy apparatus to implement his desired policies.” It added: “Unlike the Biden administration and others, the Trump administration maintains a top-down, not bottom-up approach.” In one sense, Kanapathy is in a situation any adviser to any president has to deal with.
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