Trump thwarted by Congress

Congress probably feels that it has a president in the White House who is there to undermine them at every opportunity. Trump's latest ploy is to threaten to close down the government if Congress fails to pass the federal spending bill which includes money for his Mexico wall. But Congress, both Republican members and Democrat members, have ways of getting their own back. For example, in the huge $717 billion defence authorisation bill which has just been approved there is something in there which will irk Trump. Congress has decided to include in the bill a total ban on two Chinese telecom companies from doing any business with the US government. They are ZTE and Huawei, mammoth conglomerates who have done well out of exporting to the US. But ZTE was punished earlier this year when it was discovered the company was selling electronic components to Iran and North Korea, breaching sanctions imposed by America. As a result the company was on the brink of collapse and President Xi Zinping himself appealed to Trump to save thousands of jobs. Trump agreed to see what he could do. But he met with stony faces in Congress, and now they have underlined their opposition to helping the Chinese by reemphasising the ban on any form of business deals with the two companies. The Pentagon had ordered all retail outlets on military bases to stop selling Huawei smart phones because it judged them to be a security risk. In other words, the Chinese government could use Huawei to gain access to personal information carried by US military personnel on their phones. Huawei denied any such possibility but the Pentagon thought otherwise. Now Congress has firmly placed its support for banning ZTE and Huawei which, for Trump, means a slap in the face after his promise to Xi to help out. Mind you, with Trump raising the stakes by imposing more and more tariffs on Chinese goods, there can't be much good will around these days between the two leaders.