Trump is doing what now?

President Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday that he was working with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to prevent the collapse of the Chinese electronics giant ZTE, which shut down major operations after being sanctioned by the United States Department of Commerce last month.

“Too many jobs in China lost,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!”

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

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2018

Too many jobs in China lost? Is he confused? Has he forgotten his own America First ideology? Has MAGA left the building? Has he forgotten the name of the country he’s the president of which?

The department last month banned shipments of American technology to ZTE for seven years, saying the company had failed to reprimand employees who violated American trade controls on Iran and North Korea. The department said Sunday that it had no comment.

Naturally not; it was asking itself all the above questions and more (plus it was at church).

Mr. Trump’s tweet on Sunday left many scratching their heads. The president has taken a tough stance on what his administration deems unfair trade practices by the Chinese government. And he has trumpeted his efforts to safeguard American jobs even if it means creating economic strain in other countries.

The prospective shutdown of ZTE has been seen as major leverage in continuing trade discussions between China and the United States over Chinese trade practices. If Mr. Trump was announcing a huge concession with his tweet, it was without any indication of what he might have gotten in return.

Also without any indication that it was a massive brain fart that happened while he was watching Sunday morning cartoons on the tv machine.

Scott Kennedy, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that in expressing concerns about Chinese jobs, Mr. Trump was reiterating the case made by Beijing on ZTE’s imminent collapse.

“Jobs is the talking point,” he said, adding that for Mr. Trump to write about Chinese jobs in the tweet, “it must have just been part of the conversation, which would have come from the Chinese side.”

Ah well that explains it then. Someone said it to Trump, and Trump said it to Twitter. You can’t expect him to evaluate what people tell him.