Perdue told Fox News on Sunday that Trump raised the offer directly, saying the president "continues to say, hey, we sell arms to other people around the world," and that he "actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some."
The comment came up during an interview focused on U.S. Policy toward Taiwan, which has been waiting months for Trump to sign off on a new arms package worth $14 billion. That follows a record multi-billion dollar weapons deal announced in December last year. Trump's commitment to defending Taiwan has faced questions before, according to the Guardian.
The offer lands in an odd spot given the tension it sits inside. Washington has spent years building up Taiwan's defenses against a potential Chinese invasion, while stalling a major new sale to the island. The same administration is now reportedly floating weapons sales to Beijing itself, the government those Taiwan sales are meant to deter.
Perdue did not say what Xi's response was, or whether Trump named specific weapons systems. The remark surfaced only through the ambassador's account on television, not through any official White House statement.
Trump has long touted American arms sales abroad as an economic and diplomatic tool. Whether that pitch extends to America's biggest geopolitical rival is a question nobody in the administration has answered yet.