back to article Did I say Chinese jobs? I meant American jobs says new Trump Tweet

United States president Donald Trump appears to have tried to get back to making America great again, rather than saving jobs in China, with a new Tweet about Chinese network kit-maker ZTE. Trump yesterday Tweeted that the US Commerce Department’s recent imposition of penalties on ZTE meant “Too many jobs in China lost” and …

  1. bombastic bob Silver badge
    Devil

    Art of the Deal

    how Trump operates.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Art of the Deal

      Coincidentally, it seems that a Trump project in Indonesia got $500M in loans from China last week. Presumably this had nothing at all to do with a request from China to go easy on ZTE?

      From https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-china-zte_us_5af9f701e4b0200bcab7fa66?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004:

      "Trump will profit from Indonesian resort project that will get $500 million in Chinese loans in a deal sealed days before before his tweet ordering help for ZTE"

      When someone asked the White House about this today they said "no comment, the Trump organization is nothing to do with us gov". Either way it's working out well for Trump whether there's a link or not. There used to be a rule that president's didn't mix personal profit with foreign policy decisions, but apparently that's not how the art of the deal works :(

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

        1. IglooDude

          Re: Art of the Deal

          I only recently figured it out, that when Trump says "drain the swamp", he's referring to the existing well-known one in Washington DC, and he means to drain it INTO his own swamp which is conveniently located nearby and at a lower level than anything around it.

          1. Edwin

            Re: Art of the Deal

            The only reason Trump wants to drain the swamp (preferably at taxpayer expense) is so that he can build a golf resort there.

          2. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

            Re: Art of the Deal

            He is drinking the swamp. Not alcoholically; apparently although unbelievably, this has been him sober, all along.

          3. mosw

            Re: Art of the Deal

            "he means to drain it INTO his own swamp which is conveniently located nearby and at a lower level than anything around it."

            I guess that would be Mar-a-Lago.

            "Meet the new swamp, same as the old swamp."

        2. Teiwaz

          Re: Art of the Deal

          Was it not Trump who stated that they needed to "drain the swamp" as per Washington DC ?

          That's because everyone misunderstood Donalds intent RE: Swamp

          i.e He wants to drain it and build a nice lucrative themed resort there.

          It's the only association he knows.....

          Seemingly he's also surrounded by devout christians who've managed to remain blind to the 'moneylenders in the temple' (parable?) - I guess they are too intent trying to get the middle east to explode in the hopes of triggering the end-times....

          ....nutters the lot of them.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Art of the Deal

            Don't worry, the next PO(TU)S will save America.

            It's all jam, jam and more jam tomorrow folks!

      2. DiViDeD

        Re: Art of the Deal

        "..Trump organization is nothing to do with us gov.."

        Am I the only one who read that as "Trump organization is nothing to do with us, guv"?

  2. VikiAi
    Go

    Pot/Kettle.

    "Any telecomm firm in China can be forced to act as tool of Chinese espionage without any court order or any other review process."

    While undoubtably true, coming from the US it sounds a bit on-the-nose!

    1. Ole Juul

      Re: Pot/Kettle.

      "... without any court order or other review process."

      National security letters, which apparently don't require the approval of a judge, obviously don't count.

    2. Nick Kew

      Re: Pot/Kettle.

      That's just the Law of Outrage. When your powers that be are noisily outraged by a foreign power's alleged evil, you just know the accusations hurled are of things they themselves not merely do but take for granted.

      I suspect this law applies mostly to those countries that set themselves up as moral entities. It's certainly strong in some of us whose national narrative is "we're the good guys because we beat Hitler".

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Pot/Kettle.

      "undoubtedly"

      Reminds me of this scene from Friends: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z0Gitlj9bM

  3. Mark 85

    Two problems... maybe more that haven't come up yet.

    Yes, by all accounts ZTE does buy a lot it's components from the States and for several companies it's a major customer. Wall Street is hitting those companies hard.

    China spies.. uses whatever they can. US spies, uses whatever they can.

    ZTE is probably just a pawn in this. Once the trade negotiations are done, all will be back to "normal" or some value thereof, and both leaders will claim a win-win.

    1. Richard Plinston

      Re: Two problems... maybe more that haven't come up yet.

      > Wall Street is hitting those companies hard.

      And those company's lobbyists are bribi^H^H^H^H^H donating to Trump's campaign funds to get this reversed.

  4. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    Trump trumpetting his trumps while Putin's puttin his troops at the ready.

  5. Konk

    I do hope that the register is joking

    And that "nice" is also "real".

  6. Aladdin Sane

    Could we not use this behaviour

    To induce some sort of feedback loop until he has a breakdown? Would anybody notice if he did?

  7. Denarius
    Joke

    two of the most powerful ?

    Xi I know of, but where did Putin come from with ZTE ?

  8. Nimby
    Trollface

    a way to get back into business, fast = Emerditto

    So, what, Trump gives Xi the "advice" that ZTE declare bankruptcy and "sell" all of its assets and IP to a "new" company (with a different name even) called Emerditto, which then conveniently hires all of ZTE's former employees? New company = no penalties = problem solved? Wherever could Trumped-Up get such an idea from...

  9. DCFusor
    FAIL

    Incompetent

    If your national security depends on secrets, rather than strength, abundance, redundancy, general power and so on - you are incompetent as a defense organisation.

    If the only think keeping your secrets secret is a technological solution to a sociological problem, you're an idiot who doesn't understand discipline or is unable to create and enforce it. Also incompetent.

    If people want to challenge that defense because your government has gone around pissing off everyone in sight - then they are doubly incompetent as they are at least theoretically in charge of the defense establishment.

    Of course, we the people are theoretically in charge of our government, but that's well known to be only a theory - they are tyrannically lawless and have been for most of my 64 year life - this isn't a partisan issue.

    I say this as an old cold warrior - now reformed - who was quite intimate with the ins and outs of all this, how to plan, how to create or lift the fog of battle, C3I, and so on...what we have now is a joke.

    Maybe some of those theories need to be realized as facts on the ground. Perhaps the way to start is by admitting what's obviously the case.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ZTE going out of business won't hurt US companies

    The reason ZTE was buying from US companies was to make phones to sell to carriers in the US - for example they needed CDMA support so they bought Qualcomm. They weren't using Qualcomm chips in the phones they sold in China.

    Whatever ZTE phones don't get sold in the US will be replaced by some other OEM's phones sold in the US - which will also likely use Qualcomm because CDMA support is required (though not for too much longer, so Qualcomm will have to give them a reason to keep buying theirs and not go with Intel/Samsung/etc.)

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