President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for undersecretary of defense policy, Elbridge Colby, once called for the destruction of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s chip plants if China takes over Taiwan.
TSMC, Colby wrote, needs to be included in the US’ semiconductor sanctions against China in the event that Taiwan surrenders. The US and its allies can’t afford to allow China to “have such dominance over global semiconductors,” he wrote.
Trump announced Colby’s nomination in a Truth Social post on Sunday, calling him a “highly respected advocate for our America First foreign and defense policy.”
Colby, a Harvard and Yale Law graduate, was part of the first Trump administration. He served as Trump’s deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development from 2017 to 2018.
