New White House claim exposes Trump’s 'incoherence and incompetence'

New claims out of the White House are "mind-boggling," according to a new analysis from MS NOW, and further expose President Donald Trump's "remarkable combination of incoherence and incompetence."

Trump recently hosted a controversial state visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping last week, after which David Perdue, the U.S. ambassador to China, made the "mind-boggling" claim that the president had asked his counterpart if he wanted to purchase American military hardware. Trump himself later denied hearing about such an offer, but also added, "they’d probably like to buy it because we do make better equipment than that, so maybe it’s a good idea."

Perdue's explanation came as he broke down Trump's conversation with Xi about U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, a longstanding point of contention with China. Trump supposedly tried to downplay the relationship, as Perdue explained it, arguing, 'Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world,' before he then “actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some at one point?' Official statements from the White House and State Department did not dispute that Trump brought up the idea to Xi, but stressed that no official offer is in place.

"This scenario, if true, is mind-boggling," MS NOW reporter Zeeshan Aleem wrote. "And if Perdue’s claims are not true and he was saying something false, that’s a significant and confounding problem, too, because it would not just be a major lie, but a foolish one... China is the only country in the world that threatens the U.S.’ status as the world’s preeminent military power, and the U.S. takes great pains to guard its technological edge against its rivals... Selling highly coveted U.S. arms to China would undermine the U.S.’ military advantage. It is common sense to not empower a country that lands on the opposite side of a lot of global geopolitical jockeying. Given that, for example, Trump asked Xi to curb assistance to Iran, it would not make sense to boost Beijing’s arsenal."

He added further: "If Trump made the offer, it would demonstrate total incoherence on China policy in the administration. Under the One China policy that has governed U.S. policy since 1979, the U.S. officially acknowledges China’s position on Taiwan but maintains informal diplomatic ties with the island nation, and crucially, routinely supplies it with billions of dollars worth of defensive arms... If the U.S. were to sell arms to China, it would undermine that entire calculation and would be akin to scoring an own goal."

Aleem also noted that, despite the alarming nature of the alleged offer, it was on some level "not surprising at all" coming from Trump, given that "he lacks even a rudimentary knowledge of how things like trade and diplomacy work, and has an even poorer grasp of — or commitment to — U.S. traditions in those spheres." It would have also fit with his well-established tendency to flout long-standing ties with democratic allies in order to better align himself with authoritarian states, whose leaders he openly admires.

"The capitals of the world are always watching Washington closely," Aleem concluded. "This episode shows a president who seems to have fewer and fewer wits about him — and a staff that lacks the competence or willpower to make up for it."