A former White House official in the first Trump administration said on Monday that President Donald Trump would never use Taiwan as a bargaining chip in dealings with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

But Alexander Gray, deputy assistant to Trump and chief of staff of the National Security Council from 2019 to 2021, told Taiwan’s Central News Agency on Sunday that because of domestic politics, the island nation has not demonstrated sufficient resolve to raise its defense spending, the Taipei Times reported.

“Taiwan has been a core national interest of the United States. Taiwan’s autonomy and sovereignty have been a core interest of ours for decades,” Gray said. “I don’t see any reason why President Trump would ever, for the first time in his … years as president, compromise on a core interest of the United States.”

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