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New York Times reporter explains that @realDonaldTrump tweet on Chinese telecom giant ZTE

On Sunday morning, President Donald Trump announced that he was ordering the Commerce Department to look at options to get Chinese telecom giant ZTE “back in business, fast”:

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The Commerce Department had just banned exports to ZTE after it was determined that the company “repeatedly violated U.S. sanctions limiting exports of U.S. technology to Iran and North Korea”:

https://twitter.com/MaxKennerly/status/995683945869082625

After the export ban, ZTE was forced to shut down:

The tweet, as you might imagine, triggered many in the blue-check mob with some wondering if Trump was profiting personally from the move:

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And there were many, many of these takes:

But the more obvious reason behind the tweet — if you can put aside your Trump hatred for a second — is that ZTE is being used as leverage for either trade negotiations, North Korea or both. From Paul Mozur of the New York Times:

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FWIW, Politico is now reporting something similar via anonymous White House sources:

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