Trump's ZTE puzzler

Wait, Trump will give Chinese companies legal immunity in exchange for a trade deal?

A ZTE logo in Beijing.
(Image credit: WANG ZHAO/AFP/Getty Images)

President Trump is suddenly very concerned about the job security of Chinese workers. "President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast," he tweeted Sunday. "Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!"

It was a strange statement, even for Donald Trump. Not only had his Commerce Department just cut off ZTE — China's second-biggest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, and the fourth-largest supplier of smartphones in the U.S. — from trade with American companies thanks to its habit of violating sanctions against Iran and North Korea, but this is a president who made his name with nationalistic and xenophobic rhetoric, often explicitly targeting China. Democrats like Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had fun tweaking Trump on that latter point in particular.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.