Trump went from 'America first' to saving jobs in China.

* opinion

Back in 2016, the security firm Kryptowire said tens of thousands of mostly inexpensive Android phones, including the BLU R1 HD sold at Amazon from a Miami-based company that was selling phones that were secretly transmitting text messages, contact lists and call logs to servers back in China. It was all over the web so it was not part of any "FAKE NEWS" campaign. The word was the BLU phones came preloaded with firmware managed by a company named Shanghai Adups Technology Co. It was discovered the data mining tool called Adups that had been living inside hundreds of millions of devices produced by more than 40 manufacturers. ZTE claims that none of their devices in the U.S. have ever had the Adups software installed on them. Blu subsequently removed the offending software. The Blu phones removed Amazon eventually were put back on Amazon.

Huawei and Z.T.E (Zhongxing Telecommunication Equipment Corporation) phones are banned by Pentagon. Shouldn't that tell us something? Huawei and  ZTE devices are not sold by retailers on Canadian military bases around the world. I watched on TV  earlier this year that the CIA, NSA, FBI along with the Defense Intelligence Agency said that Americans should not use phones by those brands because of the risk they could be spied on by the Chinese. ZTE is owned 33 percent by Chinese-government-owned enterprises, had been fined $1.2 billion last year after it was found to be violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and North Korea.

A little while ago ZTE said it had halted major operations after the US government moved to ban US companies from selling software or components to ZTE. But Sunday, Trump tweeted that he and Chinese President for life were working together to save ZTE. "Too many jobs in China lost," Trump tweeted. "Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!"

“Our intelligence agencies have warned that ZTE technology and phones pose a major cybersecurity threat,” Adam Schiff, senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee, posted on Twitter. “You should care more about our national security than Chinese jobs.”

"We can't continue to allow China to rape our country, and that's what they're doing," Trump May 2016 Fort Wayne, Indiana. Trump went on to say he was not "angry at China," but with U.S. leaders whom he accused of being "grossly incompetent."

“China’s upset because of the way Donald Trump is talking about trade with China. They’re ripping us off, folks, it’s time. I’m so happy they’re upset.” Trump Staten Island, N.Y.  April 2016.

This is yet another example of the Trump Administration talking a big game on national security but rolling over when it comes to standing up to "strong men" in the east.

In 2018 we got Ransomware attacks, Corporate espionage. Massive data breaches and Election meddling to name a few. The cybersecurity threats facing the United States is at an all time, leaving government agencies and private companies needing leadership from the top. So why would Trump look too eliminated the position of cybersecurity czar on the NSC (National Security Council) this week? It was in 2009 that Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the world that "The US is under cyber-attack virtually all the time, every day"  That same year Chinese cyber thugs broke into computers at Google, and Russian cyber-thieves stole tens of millions of dollars from Citibank.

Since 2009

• Moscow meddled in the 2016 presidential election.
• Beijing target U.S. companies as they're interested in stealing information on US companies.
• Remember "The Interview"? Pyongyang is most famous for the massive data breaches against  Sony Pictures Entertainment before the release of its movie in 2012. 
• In March of this year, six days after a ransomware cyberattack, Atlanta, Georgia officials were filling out forms by hand.

According to some, the Trump administration is worried U.S. farmers will vote against the Republican party, hurting their efforts to hold on to the House and Senate in the midterms. So maybe China has suggested it will hold off on the agricultural tariffs if the U.S. goes easy on ZTE. I saw last month Trump kind of threw out there the idea of saving the farmers with new subsidy payments, but that idea was quickly shot down by Trumps fellow Republican lawmakers.

When it comes cybersecurity, we cannot compromise on analyzing, monitoring, protecting and responding to known vulnerabilities, attacks, and exploitations from enemies foreign and domestic.

The White House insists that the Trump is defending U.S. interests there forcefully, behind closed doors. Seems for my eyes he's just laying there and taking it.