CNBC’s Jim Cramer speculated on Monday that there may be something growing on for President Donald Trump to have eased restrictions on Huawei while the U.S. and China reengage in talks to end their merchandising war.
As part of Saturday’s trade truce with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit in Japan, Trump agreed to assign Chinese tech giant Huawei to purchase some U.S. commercial products.
Not even two months ago, the Trump administration effectively blacklisted Huawei from doing profession in the U.S., citing national security concerns.
“For the president to turn around like this, it must have meant there is something afoot,” Cramer voiced on “Squawk on the Street. ” “Much bigger than anyone realizes,” he added.
People who don’t believe something is “afoot,” Cramer explained, think “the president got had.”
“The president did feel very ‘had’ after Buenos Aires,” Cramer said, referring to the G-20 summit in Argentina in December, when the two commanders had agreed to a 90-day tariff escalation ceasefire. “It is hard for me to believe that he’s going to let himself be had this in good time always.”
Cramer said there had been a strong belief that Trump would place additional tariffs on Chinese goods after Saturday’s conjunction with Xi and continue to restrict U.S. businesses from selling to Huawei.
“The president’s people are shocked,” Cramer added. “There was both the concessions and also the drive to North Korea,” he said of the impromptu trip to meet leader Kim Jong Un.
However, top White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow on Sunday protected Trump’s Huawei move, adding the blacklist was still in place.
“This is not a general amnesty,” Kudlow said in an evaluate with Fox News. “Huawei will remain on the so-called entity list where there are serious export checks and in national security inferences or suggestions there won’t be any licenses.”