Throughout his campaign, and into his presidency, Donald Trump promised that he would be the “jobs” president. He swore that he would make American corporations close up their off-shore factories and bring those jobs back to the U.S. He insisted that his tax scam bill would result in companies investing more in domestic facilities and workers. None of that turned out to be true.
Unfortunately, when Trump said that he would work tirelessly to create jobs, he failed to specify that thousands of them would be in China. But on Sunday morning he corrected that error of omission by tweeting this:
President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2018
Oh good. That’s just what the American people voted for. They were hungering for a leader who would direct his cabinet to restore the thousands of jobs that have been lost in China. At least when they had the time and resources to do that after taking lavish trips around the world, buying extravagant office furnishings, harassing asylum seekers and separating their families, and raking in cash and property from corporations seeking favorable treatment from the government.
But Trump’s latest initiative to benefit China’s employment situation is a peculiar choice. The company whose fortunes he is trying to advance, the ZTE Corporation, is suffering a financial hardship due to the sanctions that have been placed on it. Those sanctions were in part the result of the company’s trading with Iran. Just this past week Trump pulled the U.S. out of a multinational agreement to prohibit Iran from developing nuclear weapons. He’s now executing his plan to restore the sanctions that were in place prior to that agreement. So American companies will not be permitted to do business with Iran but, apparently, China will be.
And that isn’t all. ZTE has also been cited as a national security threat whose telecom products were found to be capable of spying on Americans. Many of the heads of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement, including the Attorney General, FBI, CIA, and NSA, have warned about ZTE’s nefarious activities and prohibited American companies from sharing technology and selling them parts. Here are some of the reactions to Trump’s tweet:
Our intelligence agencies have warned that ZTE technology and phones pose a major cyber security threat. You should care more about our national security than Chinese jobs. https://t.co/7Ygh7805jg
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) May 13, 2018
Uh, US companies were banned from selling to ZTE because it violated sanctions with Iran, which this administration claims is such a threat that it just imposed new sanctions. https://t.co/4PK5PmJSyP
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) May 13, 2018
The heads of the NSA, FBI, and CIA are concerned that ZTE may be using their technology to spy on U.S. consumers. https://t.co/fDPu7nWHtE pic.twitter.com/gEqOAlqd1F
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 13, 2018
To Jake Tapper this AM,John Bolton threatened sanctions on NATO allies who continue to trade w Iran. ZTE is an Iran sanctions buster on a colossal scale, but China offered more lenient treatment. Why? https://t.co/1hI6N3Lg9R
— David Frum (@davidfrum) May 13, 2018
“ZTE Corporation not only violated export controls that keep sensitive American technology out of the hands of hostile regimes like Iran’s, they lied…about their illegal acts” – Jeff Sessions
So why go to bat for ZTE? Does it have anything to do w/the Chinese trademarks he got? https://t.co/QPYla2aSjL— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) May 13, 2018
"We're deeply concerned about the risks of allowing a company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don't share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks.”
– FBI Director Christopher Wray, Feb. 2018https://t.co/xBNSK2iyVe https://t.co/wPezakEuCb— Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell) May 13, 2018
The question is why would Trump suddenly take this position and tweet about it on Mother’s Day? Generally when we see some random thought expressed by the Tweeter-in-Chief it’s something he just saw on Fox and Friends or Hannity. But that doesn’t appear to be the case in this instance. The next best guess is that China’s President Xi brought it up in a recent conversation and Trump is blindly complying with the wishes of Xi without consulting the professionals in commerce and national security to ascertain whether this is a good idea. It is obviously against existing national policy as expressed by his own cabinet heads.
So what is Trump up to? What’s he getting out of this? He and his family have financial interests in China. He also has political interests in getting Xi to go along with his agenda for North Korea. What’s in it for him? Because you know he wouldn’t do this out of compassion for the poor Chinese workers. And the fact that he would violate the Iran sanctions he fought so hard for, while risking national security, means his reward must be substantial. Somebody better start to ask these questions before he’s allowed to cause even more damage.
How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
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