Trump Orders to Help ZTE after China Approves Funding for His Project!

Trump’s Indonesian resort project receives an astounding $500 million funding after the Chinese approved his business loan. As an act of gratitude, Trump tweeted stating he’s ordering the government to help ZTE.

A Win-win Situation

The Trump Organization entered a deal to license the said Indonesian resort after the President’s name, which includes the hotels and golf course

Just three days after the Chinese government announced they planned to invest in Trump’s Indonesian project and was also giving out half a billion dollars, Trump announced he and President Xi Jinping are working together to help the largest Chinese phone company, ZTE, get back in business fast.

Due to the company’s fallback, thousands of Chinese people lost their jobs. He’s now ordering the Commerce Department to get the job done. The said resort outside Jakarta not only received $500 million from Chinese government loans, but Trump’s company also sealed another $500 million funding from Chinese banks.

Conflict of Interests

Meanwhile, the public slammed Trump for not being consistent with his campaign promises. The President said that he will turn over his business to his sons and will have no involvement with it once he won the Presidency.

However, it turned out he’s still invested heavily in his businesses and continues to receive huge profit out of it. He also stated how the deal violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution. The said clause prohibits the U.S. President from receiving payments, profit, or any form of monetary value from foreign governments for his own personal or business interest.

The White House ethics lawyer of former President Bush stated the said deal was a “Quid pro quo.” If you do a good deal with Trump, he’ll return a good deal for you, but he doesn’t do the same to those who criticize him

As of this writing, the White House declined to comment on the issue and established the connection between Trump’s directive on ZTE and the “MNC Lido City.” The Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said he didn’t speak about the said issue during a briefing last Monday. Trump’s family business acknowledged its involvement with the resort last Monday. However, they refused to disclose how much the company will spend on licensing and management fees.

ZTE’s Controversies

ZTE phones have been banned from military use due to the security risks it imposed to the U.S. intelligence and military community. They claimed the device could track the location of their service members, which could endanger the soldier’s lives if the enemy managed to track their bases and locations.

33% of ZTE is owned by Chinese-government enterprise

Aside from that, the company was already fined with an astounding $1.2 billion last year when it violated the U.S. sanctions against Iran and North Korea. The ZTE officials had lied about their actions, which prompted the U.S. government to ban the company from purchasing components and spare parts to assemble said phones for seven years. And since the company imported most of its components from the country, the ban essentially forced the company to shut its operations down.

Trade Agreement

While the public lamented the President for intervening the law to satisfy a foreign firm and government, Shah, on the other hand, downplayed Trump’s directives. He said that the Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will assess the situation to make sure applicable laws and regulations will be followed and implemented following the order. He also dismissed the idea that Trump’s latest tweet threatens the corporate law enforcement’s integrity. If anything, he emphasized that “gives and takes” should take place between two nations establishing a bilateral relationship and diplomacy.

For the past few months, Trump has been trying to seal a trade agreement with China. Aside from that, he’s been seeking Xi’s help to become a third party negotiator in cracking down North Korea due to their nuclear programs. Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen group which promotes for an open and transparent government, said that the ZTE and Indonesian Resort deal is an example of Trump’s unwillingness to abide by the emolument clause. He’s appalled how the Chinese government seems to find a way to manipulate the US President.