Trump Reportedly Called Taiwan a Sharpie Next to China’s Desk
Historian Niall Ferguson recalled the remark as his reason for saying Beijing sees Taiwan as in play with Trump.
Uncommon Knowledge · Niall Ferguson, Victor Davis Hanson, and Stephen Kotkin: Three Historians Debate the Era of TrumpNiall Ferguson, a historian, recalled the exchange during a discussion with two other historians about President Donald Trump and his place in history.
Ferguson said it happened while Trump was sitting in the Oval Office with John Bolton, who briefly and unhappily served as his national security adviser in the first administration.
Ferguson was describing what he said Trump told Bolton in that meeting. A Sharpie, a thick black marker pen, was Taiwan. The Resolute Desk, the desk used by the president, was China. Ferguson recalled Trump's words this way: “Taiwan is a Sharpie, China is the resolute desk. I’m not sending the U.S. Navy to fight over a Sharpie.”
Ferguson did not present the account as a transcript or an official statement. He presented it as his recollection of what Trump said to Bolton in private, offered during a debate among historians trying to judge how Trump approaches foreign policy.
He brought it up for one reason. In Ferguson's reading, the comparison showed how Trump sized up the two sides. One was small, and one was large, and Ferguson said Trump told Bolton he would not send American naval power to fight over the small one.
Ferguson then gave his own conclusion from that recollection. Ferguson said "the Chinese know that with Trump, Taiwan's in play."
That was Ferguson's point, and he left it there. Not as a claim about a formal decision, and not as a claim about what Beijing had directly heard, but as his view of what Beijing would take from a president who spoke about Taiwan that way in private.
Questions people ask
Who is John Bolton?
John Bolton is a lawyer and former government official who served as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019. He had earlier served as ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush. He later wrote a memoir about his White House service.
What is the Resolute Desk?
The Resolute Desk is the large wooden desk often used by the president in the Oval Office. It was made from timbers of a British ship and given as a gift by Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880. Many, but not all, presidents since then have used it.
What is Taiwan’s status with China and the United States?
Taiwan governs itself but Beijing claims it as part of China. The United States provides Taiwan with weapons and political support without a formal promise to fight for it. That deliberate uncertainty is often meant to discourage both an attack by Beijing and a break by Taipei.