Donald Trump has kidnapped the CFO of Huawei. He says that has something to do with Iran.
Trump has banned not only the import of Huawei products, but the sale of American products to them. He says that has something to do with security.
This is all in the midst of a trade war.
Then, on Thursday, he made the outrageous claim that he could include Huawei in a trade deal.
TRUMP: Huawei is something that’s very dangerous. You look at what they’ve done from a security standpoint, from a military standpoint, it’s very dangerous. So it’s possible that Huawei even would be included in some kind of a trade deal. If we made a deal, I could imagine Huawei being possibly included in some form, some part of a trade deal.
REPORTER: How would that look?
TRUMP: It would look very good for us.
REPORTER: But the Huawei part, how would you design that.
TRUMP: Oh it’s too early to say. We’re just very concerned about Huawei from a security standpoint.
What does this mean?
These things are contradictory.
He either means that Huawei is not a security threat, and he is just lying about that in order to get more leverage in a trade deal, or that he’s willing to sacrifice American security and embrace the ominous threat of spying if it comes along with a good trade deal.
Which is worse?
Clearly, the Huawei bans are not entirely about security. The whole concern over allowing the Chinese company to be part of a 5G network in America theoretically could be about security. But that doesn’t explain why he would ban Google and other American companies from cooperating with Huawei.
This is all just a bunch of hoaxery to attack China. Just like kidnapping their CFO on trumped-up charges of violating US sanctions on Iran.
This entire Chinese harassment situation stinks. It does not appear as though Trump has what’s best for the US in mind, and given his track record – which involves doing absolutely nothing for the American people – I do not believe that this is the one exception.
Trump should be honest about whatever the hell is going on here.
In particular: is this entire spectacle about trying to force China to stop doing business with Iran?
Because it makes sense if that is what is going on.
And from what I’ve witnessed, Donald Trump does not ever do anything for America, only Israel. Given that, it seems the most likely explanation.