[CarlV]

Looks like Trump likes waffles on Sunday mornings.

President Donald Trump signaled Sunday he would help out a Chinese phone-maker that has been banned from accessing U.S. technology, a top priority of Chinese trade negotiators coming to Washington later this week for talks.

The Commerce Department imposed the harsh penalty just last month against ZTE, one of China's biggest tech companies, after it was found to have violated U.S. sanctions by selling equipment to Iran and North Korea.

But Trump is softening his stance toward the company as he seeks to strengthen his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a key player in the upcoming summit with North Korea at which Trump hopes to score a major foreign policy victory, according to two people familiar with his position.

“President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast,” the president wrote on Twitter. “Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!”

It was unclear exactly what Trump had in mind for ZTE, and he does not always follow through on policies floated via tweet. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said later on Sunday that Trump expected Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to "exercise his independent judgment...to resolve the regulatory action involving ZTE based on its facts."
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...ea-iran-584244