Perhaps the greatest legacy of President Donald Trump’s first term was ending the debate about whether China would be a cooperative power or competitor.
In hindsight, it appears naive that any Republican or Democrat would believe that China wanted to do anything other than overthrow the post-World War II U.S.-led democratic international order. President Bill Clinton’s State Department allowed Chinese officials onto aircraft carriers to learn about their operations and sold satellite technology to Beijing; President George W. Bush offered the Chinese communists advanced aircraft parts and sophisticated composites, even as Chinese hackers stole plans for stealth bombers and advanced avionics. Just as Qatar today buys influence among universities, think tanks, and lobbyists, so too did China purchase an army of influencers to downplay its malign ambitions. Whether standing up to Huawei and TikTok, or ending U.S. investment in Chinese military front companies, Trump sought to calibrate U.S. policy to reality rather than wishful thinking.
In 2017, Trump’s team revived the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue to help contain Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific. On July 10, 2020, the White House itself tweeted congratulations to Taiwan for establishing relations with Somaliland, good news amid a tsunami of Chinese trade expansion across the continent. It was a rare opportunity for the United States to strike a blow against Chinese expansionism. Somaliland did everything right. It oriented itself toward the West, was the only democracy in a sea of dictatorships, shut down terrorist cells, and denied its territory to the weapons smuggling that sustained both Yemen’s Houthis and Somalia’s al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab.
The State Department never got the memo. At the time, Donald Yamamoto, a career diplomat and one of the Foreign Service’s top Africa hands, was U.S. ambassador to Somalia. He sought to ingratiate himself with Mogadishu, encouraging a de facto embargo of Somaliland while channeling billions of dollars of aid and debt relief to Somalia’s pro-China government. His theory was simple: Mogadishu’s happiness would reflect his success. Keep the money flowing, and Mogadishu would be happy. His successor, Larry André, Jr., stood firm in the idea before retiring early and going to work for Somalia’s largest telecom provider, lobbying to allow it access to U.S. banks after previous terrorist finance allegations.
Bullies prey on weakness and vulnerability. As secretary of state under former President Joe Biden, Antony Blinken signaled ambivalence. China launched a proxy war, supporting Somali militias against Somaliland to punish the country for siding with Taiwan and to seize its rare earths by force. Somalilanders hoped that Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio would end the State Department’s self-defeating, pro-Beijing policy toward the Horn of Africa and perhaps even recognize Somaliland’s independence as Israel just did. Many in Congress, the Pentagon, the National Security Council, and the intelligence community favor independence. The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act called for the State Department to conduct a policy review.
While underway, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau slow-rolls the review, while Rubio defers to those shaped by Yamamoto and André. China’s anti-American strategists could not be happier. On Dec. 21, 2025, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the recipient of billions of dollars in U.S. assistance, told Chinese television that he endorsed China seizing Taiwan by force. And yet, Rubio’s State Department continues to embrace the Somali president first promoted by former Secretary Hillary Clinton.
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Recognizing Somaliland should be a no-brainer. It would support Taiwan over China, free the Pentagon from China’s chokehold over the U.S. base in Djibouti, privilege the U.S. in the race for Somaliland’s rare earths, jumpstart the fight against the Houthis and al Qaeda, and show the international community that successful independence movements reject terrorism, corruption, and dictatorship.
Time is running out. Rubio’s disinterest and Landau’s hostility are a Chinese dream come true. Just as then-President Harry S. Truman defied the State Department when he recognized Israel in 1948, Trump should defy the State Department to embrace Somaliland, the most pro-American, anti-Chinese country in Africa. It is time to put Washington’s interests above Beijing’s Somalia client.
Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He is the director of analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.