Shepard Smith Stunned by Trump’s Pledge to Help Chinese Smartphone Company: ‘I Don’t Get It’

Ken MeyerMay 14th, 2018, 4:22 pm

Fox News’ Shepard Smith was not all that impressed with President Trump‘s tweet about working with China’s Xi Jinping to help save ZTE.

Over the weekend, Trump caused a good deal of chatter when he pledged to assist the Chinese government and keep one of their biggest telecommunications companies on its feet. Trump has complained in the past about China stealing jobs from American workers, and assisting ZTE would warrant a lot of questions regarding economics and national security.

Smith noted that ZTE’s dealings with Iran and North Korea violated US sanctions, and the Department of Defense has warned that their cell phones could be used for espionage. As Smith talked to John Roberts and A.B. Stoddard about the implications of Trump’s tweet, he said he really couldn’t see what POTUS is thinking here.

“I don’t get it,” Smith said. “This is a president who, during the campaign season, railed on China in every way possible, who has since said ‘we’re going to do tariffs’ and now all of a sudden we need to save Chinese jobs after they broke the North Korea [deal]?”

Shortly after Smith’s segment, Trump started tweeting about ZTE again.

ZTE, the large Chinese phone company, buys a big percentage of individual parts from U.S. companies. This is also reflective of the larger trade deal we are negotiating with China and my personal relationship with President Xi.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 14, 2018