AIT Director Greene Publicly Backs 5% GDP Defense Target and NT$1.25T Special Budget

American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene stated in a March 29 TVBS interview that the Trump administration is asking all partners including Taiwan to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP, and that Washington supports President Lai Ching-te's goal of reaching that target by 2030. Greene publicly endorsed Taiwan's NT$1.25 trillion (~US$40 billion) 8-year special defense budget and called on all parties — including the opposition KMT and TPP — to pass it, citing the urgency of the military threat environment. The statement is the most direct US public endorsement of the full NT$1.25T bill (vs. the KMT's NT$380B and TPP's NT$400B alternatives), coming on the same day as Taiwan's highest PLA aircraft sortie count of the late-March spike (19 sorties). Greene's TVBS appearance represents a public escalation of US pressure on Taiwan's legislature, following US senators' visits to Taipei on March 28 with the same message. Taiwan's MND has warned that failure to pass the special budget will delay US weapons procurement through end of 2026.