back to article Trump’s new ZTE tweets trump old ZTE tweets

United States president Donald Trump has again tried to clarify just what he meant when he tweeted about protecting jobs at Chinese networking kit-maker ZTE. Trump first tweeted that “President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast.” But a …

  1. Mark 85
    WTF?

    WTF? Left side of the brain doesn't know what the right side is doing or vice versa? Either that or he really is the shrewdest negotiator in history.

    1. Simon Sharwood, Reg APAC Editor (Written by Reg staff)

      Yes, the shrewdest. So shrewd he went bankrupt.

      1. Deej

        He's more shrewd than ever before in history. Bigly shrewd. Shrewdly.

      2. handleoclast

        So shrewd he went bankrupt.

        As I understand it (I have no doubt I'll be corrected if I'm wrong) that although a lot of people suffered financially from Trump's bankruptcies, he himself got off relatively lightly.

        Then again, it takes a special type of stable genius to lose money running a casino.

      3. entropyk48

        Yes, the shrewdest. So shrewd he went bankrupt.

        At this scale, he must be what, 4Genius level? Is that a thing? Incredible! This guy should be the US president or something..! Just think of what a job he would do...wait..!

    2. GrumpyOldBloke

      I vote for shrewdest negotiator in history, goes nicely with the stable genius theme

      Though at the end of all this I expect at least half of the Earth to be glass.

      1. gv

        Also, the smartest and the healthiest.

        1. Rich 11 Silver badge

          Also, the smartest and the healthiest.

          Thankfully we have learned that both his previous doctors are entirely trustworthy. The one who looked like he should be high was merely remiss in his professional duties and the one who looked like he has never been high was both remiss in his professional duties and permanently high.

        2. Ivan Headache

          and the humblest

      2. hplasm
        Devil

        Trump has the Infinity Stones!

        "Though at the end of all this I expect at least half of the Earth to be glass."

        Perfect Balance?

    3. jake Silver badge

      William of Ockham suggests ...

      ... dementia.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: William of Ockham suggests ...

        This seems most likely, although I've also heard people talk about a possible drug problem (cocaine I think). Or perhaps this is just what spoiled rich kids who know they're not really up to it grow into.

        1. eldakka

          Re: William of Ockham suggests ...

          > although I've also heard people talk about a possible drug problem (cocaine I think).

          If he was on cocaine he'd be more coherent than he is...

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: William of Ockham suggests ...

            Based on people I knew, they stop being very rational after a while (although there was speed involved too in that case). Although I expect you mean that people doing these drugs are off their heads but still pale beside the sheer chaos of Trump's 'thinking' and I'm missing the point!

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Left side of the brain doesn't know what the right side is doing"

      ... remove the words "side of the" and you've basically got Zaphod Beeblebrox. As the good book says

      "The President is very much a figurehead - he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. "

      ... and we seem to have even got an Eccentrica Gallumbits as well!

    5. ElwoodP

      Replace "negotiator" with "con man".

    6. TG2.2

      Given his past tweets ... those posted in the article don't read like Pres. Trump. They read more like an aide with guidance from someone more civil, skilled, and measured, taking what P.T. said and re-writing it to make it read way better.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Trump negotiates via Tweet

    ...To the surprise of NO ONE at all :)

  3. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    I just want to say . .

    . . that it is absolutely unacceptable that a President uses Twitter in any capacity. Whatever a Government is doing or wants to make known should be done through the official spokesperson and not in any other way.

    Trump is just unbelievable, in the strictest sense of the word : nothing he says can be taken at face value and anything he does say will likely be contradicted within a day.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: I just want to say . .

      He also only gives interviews to Fox News. The privileging of one media outlet over another is what his autocrats like Putin and Erdogen do.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        You can hardly blame him

        For only doing interviews with Fox, after his interview with ABC a year ago when he volunteered the real reason why the fired Comey and basically incriminated himself. He can't control his mouth - look at how he hurt his cause during his half hour long rambling nonsense when he called in to Fox & Friends a couple weeks ago. It was so bad that FOX HOSTS had to hustle him off the phone because they knew he doing himself damage - probably the first time in history a TV show had the president of the United States on the line and wanted to cut it short!

        This is why he'd be a fool to agree to an interview with Mueller. He can't stop himself from lying even in cases where he knows what the truth is, and can't stop himself from telling the truth even when he knows it would incriminate him. He's a lawyer's nightmare client, which is why so many lawyers have refused to consider representing him and he's all the way down to the bottom of the barrel with Guliani (who seems to have a similar disease of speaking the truth to Fox even when it will hurt his client)

        1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

          Re: You can hardly blame him

          You can hardly blame him

          Well, who should we blame for the favouring? I think there's certainly a case for sueing that most networks are probably too scared to take to court.

          If he's only got shit to stay then he should shut up. And Congress should be on his back about this but the spineless chumps are too worried about the mid-terms to do their job.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I just want to say . .

      "Whatever a Government is doing or wants to make known should be done through the official spokesperson and not in any other way."

      That's how the civil service bureaucrats would like it. I for one welcome the more direct approach and hope more state figures would pick up the habit. Merkel, May and Macron might get a lot more done just by tweeting more.

      @HackerMP

      (Oh gosh, who wrote my speech? More, more, more... I sound like an imbecile! On a web forum!)

    3. Lars Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: I just want to say . .

      Yes, have a listen to Tillerson, it's almost like he spoke about some moron he got to know.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkJ5-jspPd4

      (Or perhaps he is thinking about the Brexiteers)

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    terminally insane

    "It’s not unusual for Trump’s presidential Tweets to contradict policy, cabinet members, or even previous presidential Tweets."

    How nicely to mean "dude is terminally insane". I also notice how the "canned statement", if we can call that garbage by this, is split in multiple tweets to accommodate for msg max length.

    This is the sign the USA has really gone banana ... I hope they'll recover fast, post Trump, but TBH, I don't see it happen less than 2 decades after ...

    1. Jamie Jones Silver badge

      Re: terminally insane

      .... and in 30+ years time, whdn this is all an unbelievable period of history, we can say to our grandkids "Yes. It really happened, and I was there to see it."

  5. Alister

    The Washington Post and CNN have typically written false stories about our trade negotiations with China...

    So factual reporting of his previous tweets is now fake news, is it?

    Amazing.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Well the stories were false ... because the source they were based on, namely Trump, was lying. So technically yes.

    2. Waseem Alkurdi

      Fake news it is, says the Ministry of Truth.

      Somebody should tell Trump and Co. to drop 1984 and go look for another (preferably non-dystopian) novel.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Have you been hibernating the last couple years? Ever since Trump seized on the term "fake news" after it was first used to describe the truly fake stuff circulating around Facebook like how Hillary would be dead in six months or whatever he's used it to mean "news that isn't favorable to me".

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Someone should write a book about that, because Trump's repurposing of the term 'fake news' to mean almost the opposite of what it once meant has been so successful that it's now hard to remember what it originally did mean. And he did this in weeks. That's actually his most significant achievement.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Its just another way of saying "liberal media bias", which nowadays really means "lack of conservative media bias" - since a heavy conservative bias is the only way to make it look like Trump isn't in real trouble on multiple fronts, all of which Mueller is now apparently investigating. FNC used to be tilted a little conservative in the same way MSNBC was tilted a little liberal. The biases were obvious when you watched their shows, but it mostly came down to what they spent their time discussing - i.e. democratic scandal gets wall to wall coverage on FNC while republican scandal gets only a small mention, the reverse is true on MSNBC. They discussed the same set of facts, it was just their interpretation of those facts which differed.

          Once Trump got the nomination, FNC made a major change. They're completely in the tank for Trump, and like him operate on their own set of "alternative facts" that have no basis in the real world. Watching it is like finding yourself in an alternate reality - and I'm sure those who watch FNC all the time probably have the same experience watching MSNBC. But make no mistake, it is Fox that changed, MSNBC reports on the latest news on the Mueller investigation (i.e. treats it as an actual investigation, not a witch hunt that doesn't deserve mention) while FNC focuses on the conspiracy theory of the day and bangs the drums for finding a reason to help Trump obstruct justice by firing Mueller.

  6. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    "Just what is being done about ZTE therefore remains unknown."

    Including by Trump.

  7. dnicholas

    Trump staggers from one disaster to another like a drunk on the way home. I'm not even sure he's made it to the kebab shop yet

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      As long as he wasn't going to my kebab shop I wasn't too worried but it seems he will be in a month or so.

      I rarely wish harm on anyone but I could sacrifice a bit of Karma for him.

  8. veti Silver badge

    I can't believe y'all are still falling for this

    It's a year and a half into Trump's term, and you're still following his tweets.

    Fire and motion. The tweets are a distraction, in the most literal sense possible. They mean nothing. Less than nothing. Paying attention to them is like staring hard into the conjurer's eyes, thinking he's going to give away his tricks.

    Every time you run a story about Trump's tweets, you play his game. This is how he won the election: by saying so much outrageous crap that the media never actually got around to doing any hard work on him, like showing the American public what kind of businessman/politician/leader he really is.

    Look at what he does, not what he says. Twitter is not policy.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: I can't believe y'all are still falling for this

      Look at what he does, not what he says. Twitter is not policy.

      Agreed but people are looking at what he does and it is an unholy mess, this is the basis of the article in the Washington Post.

      The tweets always play to the base: a bunch of people either too lazy or too stupid to follow the news. But the problem is there is occasionally collateral damage as a result of his off-hand remarks and tweets, which do occasionally get given the status of official comments by the Whitehouse press department.

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: I can't believe y'all are still falling for this

      No, don't look at what Trump does, look at what his administration does while everyone's busy getting upset about his tweets.

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: I can't believe y'all are still falling for this

        To date, what exactly has the Trump administration done? Other than piss off pretty much every person on the planet, of course. And Trump's personal high-point: inventing a new word. Shame he forgot what it meant before he could let the rest of us know ...

        1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

          Re: I can't believe y'all are still falling for this

          To date, what exactly has the Trump administration done?

          Increased the national debt a lot

          Pushed some people out of healthcare

          Rolled back environmental and business regulations – lovely drinking water you'll have soon

          Fawned to the Israelis and the Saudis

          Played a lot of golf at Mar a Lago

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I can't believe y'all are still falling for this

          It's done a lot: fucked the Paris agreement probably irreperably which will probably result in billions of deaths over the next century; fucked the Iran nuclear deal which will probably result in major wars in the middle east, possibly including nuclear war; fucked numerous trade agreements resulting in increased barriers to trade, increased poverty and probably millions more deaths; destroyed trust in the US ever playing fairly with anyone, essentially handing their role as last superpower standng to China.

          Really a lot.

      2. veti Silver badge

        Re: I can't believe y'all are still falling for this

        No, don't look at what Trump does, look at what his administration does while everyone's busy getting upset about his tweets.

        "Getting upset". Exactly. That's what the tweets are for.

        Politicians have always known that journalists are lazy, but Trump has taken it to a whole new level. Conventional politicians just cultivate a few tame journalists and feed them stories, thus allowing the journalist to look informed and insightful without doing any real work.

        But Trump - Trump uses Twitter to distract the entire press corps at once. "Following Twitter" is about as cheap and lazy as journalism gets, which means he can rely on just about every media organisation in the world doing it. As long as he continues to generate "things that look like news" in this way - things that can pass for news to enough people that they don't look out of place on the news pages - they will all run it.

        Think about what that means. First, the press spend their time talking about what Trump wants them to talk about - which means they have no time left for talking about things he doesn't want them to talk about. The press waste their time picking holes in his positions and logic, which bolsters Trump's narrative of the press all being against him - and is completely meaningless, because he has no intention of following up on any of this crap anyway. And the public's attention is saturated, so we don't notice what his administration is actually doing while he's spraying all this bullshit at us.

        Dear journalists: just stop following the tweets. Block him on Twitter. Filter from your newsfeed any story containing the words "Trump" and "Twitter". They have negative information content. Every time you read one, you become slightly stupider, and you're taking the rest of the world down with you.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I can't believe y'all are still falling for this

      Hasn't he fired people by tweet while president? If he has then his tweets kind of are policy.

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: I can't believe y'all are still falling for this

        Hasn't he fired people by tweet while president? If he has then his tweets kind of are policy.

        Indeed. While some people like Scott Adams cling to the belief that Trump is a master communicator for many others it looks like what you see is what you get: Trump sees or hears something and comments on it, officially even if this contradicts previous statements or official policy. This does seem to be playing well in America as it bolsters the man of the people image that he's managed to create (a real estate billionaire who owes his fortune in no small degree to stiffing his creditors by declaring bankruptcy), ie. keeping the country in campaign mode is working. Unfortunately, government outside dictatorships such as Russia is about a bit more than campaign slogans and the pettiness of much of Trump's communications is doing lasting damage to US international and trading interests. For example, something that long looked impossible not so long ago, establishing an international payments framework with no US involvement, while still unlikely is definitely being considered. The dollar's hegemony is likely to remain unchallenged for some time yet, but expect bond yields to spike if the Europeans decide to keep trading with Iran. In fact, it was partly because Saddam Hussain talked about selling oil in Euros that the Americans decided to invade.

        1. Alistair
          Windows

          Re: I can't believe y'all are still falling for this

          In fact, it was partly because Saddam Hussain talked about selling oil in Euros

          *one* of the reaons.

    4. Steve the Cynic

      Re: I can't believe y'all are still falling for this

      I have a different interpretation, inspired not by Scott Adams, but by Douglas Adams.

      I'm starting to think that maybe he's the "visible" president in a Zaphod Beeblebrox situation, even if he only has one head and two arms. All that remains is to find out who he's a smoke-screen for...

      1. Allonymous Coward

        Re: I can't believe y'all are still falling for this

        Go looking for a guy living in a shack in South Dakota with only a cat for company...

  9. msknight

    He received a loan from china...

    so the reports say ... https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/trump-china-zte_us_5af9f701e4b0200bcab7fa66

    "Trump Orders Help For Chinese Phone-Maker After China Approves Money For Trump Project"

    Surprise? Nope.

    1. IneptAdept

      Re: He received a loan from china...

      So doing what every american politician does openly and what every UK / EU MP not so openly

      If that article is true then its what the USA has brought on itself

  10. big_D

    USA nothing to give...

    That is the problem, over the decades the USA has slowly given up its manufacturing lead, turning to soft industries instead, like finance, IT etc. and even where US companies "manufacture" hardware, the actual manufacturing takes place off-shore, because the US workforce is too expensive to be competitive, or the quality is too poor.

    Obviously there are real craftsmen left in America and producing high quality products, but they are niche. Large US companies producing mass-produced goods aren't doing it at home, so they don't have anything to export, to help boost the balance of trade. That is left to soft sectors, like finance, cloud and software - again large swathes of those have also been offshored.

    And now Trump is surprised that they have a huge trade deficit, and Europe and China are to blame? No, it is US policies' fault, over the last 40 years or so.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: USA nothing to give...

      Always worth noting that the US has lost far more jobs to automation and change than it has to overseas manufacturing.

    2. nice spam database '); drop table users; --

      Re: USA nothing to give...

      US policies, they just follow the capitalist kill cost and maximize $$$ without further thought about the environment or the workers/society/country future. This is the result. Now that capitalist#1 business man is leading the country, more so. The country doesn't stand a chance to beat China or any other socialist country, because as a country that means the power is in the hands of the state, as opposed to in the hands of businesses, cheating and suing each other and the worker class to squeeze every possible penny.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Extreme fashion

    Maybe the Chinese threatened to sabotage Ivanka's shoe production. Something that would get her sued to oblivion, like exploding heels or added anthrax.

    See: Toxic sofas

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8644156.stm

  12. Nimby
    Unhappy

    The only part that is debatable is the level of intelligence behind the mask.

    It is neither insanity nor dementia. It is poor impulse control combined with the memory of a goldfish and the honesty of a salesman.

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: The only part that is debatable is the level of intelligence behind the mask.

      I suggest you look up some common symptoms of dementia ...

    2. Rich 11 Silver badge

      Re: The only part that is debatable is the level of intelligence behind the mask.

      and the honesty of a salesman.

      More specifically, the honesty of a salesman who has gone into politics.

      1. mathew42
        Facepalm

        Re: The only part that is debatable is the level of intelligence behind the mask.

        So answers from kids about who stole the lollies from the jar are likely to be more trustworthy / consistent?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The only part that is debatable is the level of intelligence behind the mask.

      "... the memory of a goldfish ..."

      The goldfish is rather selective. If you do him wrong, it turns into an elephant's memory.

      I think you'll find that he just doesn't give a fuck about changing his mind on things (although he'd never admit to have been wrong).

      In almost the words of Konrad Adenauer: "What do I care about yesterday's tweets, nothing prevents me from becoming wiser."

  13. Sanguma

    Grand Old Art of

    putting one's foot in one's mouth before shooting oneself in the foot.

    Trump majored in it. He's a Black Belt in it. Everyone keeps hoping he'll learn to wear the black belt across his mouth, but in the absence of dedicated US patriots that is not likely to happen.

  14. hammarbtyp

    Yes he's crazy.....

    crazy like a fox

    No sorry my mistake, he's just plain nuts. Nothing to see here, please carry on

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Trumps tweets.

    If I wanted that level of intelligence or sense I would go and watch a dog bark at the moon.

  16. sanmigueelbeer
    Facepalm

    To the village where this idiot came out: Please take him back. Please.

    (Heck any village will do just fine, Comrade Putin.)

    1. handleoclast

      Heck any village will do just fine, Comrade Putin

      How about a Potemkin Village?

      Come to think of it, Trump is a Potemkin President.

  17. Aladdin Sane

    If you look very carefully, you can see the strings.

  18. John McCallum
    Devil

    Most Politicians-:)

    Are only two faced I'm beginning to think that The Donald has so many faces that he looks spherical at a distance but close up more like the surface of a D&D die.

    1. Lee D Silver badge

      Re: Most Politicians-:)

      Rolls a 1. Critical hit to common decency. Make a saving throw using stupidity factor.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just last week Boris ("a shouty pink sausage in a wig" according to the Absolutely Radio Show) was saying he should be given a Nobel Prize for sorting out the North Korea problem

    Since then he's pee'd off NK, Iran and Gaza... so make that an Ignobel Prize

    1. Kimo

      Nobel prize worthy...

      He nearly ended the Korean War. And we are (fingers held slightly apart) THIS CLOSE to solving the Israel/Palestine conflict. Just wait til he gets started on Crimea...

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Trump's Next Tweet?

    "I am Oz, The Great and Powerful!"

    1. Uncle Slacky Silver badge

      Re: Trump's Next Tweet?

      PNAMBIC!

  21. Potemkine! Silver badge

    Trumpy the destructor

    I thought Trumpy was a clown. In fact, he's much closer to be the Antichrist, only able to destroy things and propagate hatred.

  22. ukgnome

    Uncle Woo Woo has the thinest grip on reality.

  23. Kimo

    How's that Iran policy coming?

    So the US unilaterally pulls out of the Iran deal (or in other words, violates an international agreement) and threatens repercussions to firms in Britain and the EU if they continue trade that is permissible under the agreement that we violated. Then he wants to bail out a Chinese company that...wait for it...lied about trade and technology transfers to Iran under previous sanctions. Unless he doesn't.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Shrewd? Or a useful idiot?

    I’m aware of at least one British based business, that was losing some specific, existing business to ZTE, and which now appears to be gaining that business back. For now, I think Trump is a useful idiot to some. Long term, I think it’s a crap move; it may push China towards its own version of the Juche Idea (and looking at what the likes of Huawei are already doing all by themselves, they’re quite a bit more capable than the other Juche lovers).

  25. Roger Ramjet

    If DT was your boss...you'd walk out

    Arsehole of the highest magnitude.

    1. Sherrie Ludwig
      FAIL

      Re: If DT was your boss...you'd walk out

      Arsehole of the highest magnitude.

      I cannot in good conscience call Twitler an asshole. The anus, to give it its medical name, is a vital structure with an important job that it usually does competently. Triple fail.

  26. TrumpSlurp the Troll
    Trollface

    All this vitriol

    Nobody mentions a second term. At the moment I wouldn't bet against it.

  27. Anonymous South African Coward Silver badge

    Realpolitik?

    1. Aladdin Sane

      As Tom Clancy put it

      "Fuck your buddy"

  28. nice spam database '); drop table users; --

    US policies, they just follow the capitalist kill cost and maximize $$$ without further thought about the environment or the workers/society/country future. This is the result. Now that capitalist#1 business man is leading the country, more so. The country doesn't stand a chance to beat China or any other socialist country, because as a country that means the power is in the hands of the state, as opposed to in the hands of businesses, cheating and suing each other and the worker class to squeeze every possible penny.

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