Pentagon reportedly quadrupling troop presence in Taiwan
831 here in the east in Fox News Alert, the United States reportedly about to quadruple the number of troops deployed to Taiwan to help train the nation's military, which is of course facing a rising threat from China. And when it comes to China, the U.S. growing increasingly concerned over Putin's ties to the communist country as President Biden returns from Europe, where he marked one year since Russia's invasion on Ukraine. Our next guest has been warning about the escalating threat. Republican Senator from the great state of Utah, in fact, he's in Utah right now. Mike Lee joins us live.
Senator, good morning to you. Good morning. First up, what do you make of quadrupling the number of people we've got in Taiwan? Well, it's a significant step. We do have to remember that although this involves a quadrupling of those we've got there, it's going to amount to no more than a couple of hundred. So it's a small presence. It's a presence that's there to provide training and not to fight battles. Nonetheless, it's something that's significant and to watch out for.
When approaching anything having to do with China, as we would with any nuclear or armed superpower, we've got to proceed with great caution and make sure that we don't needlessly provoke any sort of conflict between the two countries. Sure. Of course, there's been a conflict between Russia and Ukraine for the last year as of tomorrow. It will be the official anniversary. Senator, you've been very vocal on Twitter. I saw you the other day say after sending 113 billion to Ukraine in 2022, why should the U.S.
even consider sending more until every NATO member has begun spending at least 2% of their GDP on defense? It seems like the United States is leading and bankrolling the whole thing and you think that's just not fair. Yeah, that's right. First of all, this is a European conflict. Although Ukraine is not a NATO ally, it's what many people are calling NATO adjacent. It's close to a number of NATO states. But you're right. The United States is bankrolling this endeavor to a very significant degree.
113 billion dollars is a lot of money. Some people don't make that much in a year. Some countries don't have a GDP anywhere close to that. And yet we sent that last year. You know what that represents? This is along the order of about twice what Russia spends on defense and all defense in a year. And this is depending on how you calculate it, maybe 20, 25 times what Ukraine spends on defense in a typical year. So if we're going to spend that much on a conflict in Europe, especially in the name of the advance of NATO priorities, are NATO European allies need to pony up? And before we give another dime, before we give another penny, they should make sure that number one, they bring up their defense spending so that it equals or exceeds 2 percent of their GDP.
Number two, they need to spend the same percentage of their GDP on the Ukraine conflict as the United States did in 2022. It's not too much to ask. It seems fair, equitable. Senator, real quick, I wanted to ask you about an AP poll queried people all across the country. Only 17 percent of Republicans say the United States should have a major role in the conflict. 17 percent. Why is that number so low? Yeah, it's interesting.
You would think from polling and watching the responses of members of Congress that the number would be more like 90 or 95 percent. The military industrial complex is a thing. The desire in Washington to increase government, government's response to everything, including a military response to a conflict with a near-peer geopolitical adversary with a huge nuclear arsenal is strong. And so the American people need to speak up on this and make clear that while we're concerned about Putin, Putin's a bad guy. And I hope sincerely that he's stopped, this cannot be ours to fight, nor can it be ours to fund alone. All right. Senator, thank you very much for joining us from Utah today.
Thank you.
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