Dogs Save People's Lives; China Trade Talks.
CAMEROTA: OK, President Trump's latest tweet teasing trade talks with China is this trade negotiations are continuing with China. They have been making hundreds of billions of dollars a year from the U.S. for many years, stay tuned. Did he seal a deal also with a Chinese tech firm, TZE? We need to talk about that.</s>GREGORY: ZTE. CAMEROTA: DT -- what?</s>GREGORY: You said TZE. It's --</s>CAMEROTA: And what is it?</s>GREGORY: ZTE. CAMEROTA: ZTE. We need to talk about ZTE, David Chalian, our political director with "The Bottom Line."</s>DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Good morning.</s>CAMEROTA: So, let's talk about this because this is the tech giant that was violating sanctions, dealing with Iran, with North Korea. It caught many people, including many Trump supporters, by surprise, when on Sunday the president tweeted that he was going to be helping that tech giant in China save jobs. What's going on here?</s>CHALIAN: Right. You wonder in the tweet this morning, you said, well, is there a deal here he's ready to announce? The other question could be, or is this just a cleanup tweet of that tweet on Sunday which could be summed up in sort of, make China great again. And -- and before he heads to Capitol Hill to meet with Senate Republicans today who would like a little more information about why he tweeted what he tweeted on Sunday. There are two prongs here, Alisyn. You've got an economic concern, which is what happened to America first and, you know, really concerned about America jobs at all cost and all of a sudden we're hearing from the president about striking a deal with Xi to make whole this company who suffered under sanctions. But then there's the national security component to this as well, which is, is ZTE -- if you have a ZTE component phone in your hand, are you all of a sudden a spy for the Chinese government unwittingly? And so there are real concerns here. Two members of the leadership in the Senate, Cornyn and Thune, have already said they want to question President Trump about this today.</s>GREGORY: Can we just pull out just a little bit longer. You may have a follow-up on that. But a little bit larger picture. Because what I'm noticing, you know, you wonder to what extent trade talks with China fit into how the president and his team are thinking about a potential deal with North Korea. You look about -- at tearing up the Iran deal, moving the embassy to Jerusalem. It really strikes me that this is a president who is feeling what a lot of presidents feel, which is, they have the most control when it comes to foreign policy and national security policy and all of a sudden he's putting together a portfolio of potential successes and certainly bold action whether you agree with it or not that will really define this administration.</s>CHALIAN: It's a good point, David, after -- especially when you put it up against the context of a year of what was largely frustration on domestic policy dealing with Congress, unable to bend it towards its will. You're right, many presidents have found this. I mean other than at the end of the year he was able to get that big tax cut legislation through. But for the big part of his first year, he was mostly just living in frustration that Congress wasn't going along with him. And I think you're right, most presidents do find the foreign policy, national security arena a little bit more easy to bend to its will. But there's something added here, I think, that is specific to President Trump, and that is, the art of the deal president. This is -- this is the guy who came in and said, I am a deal maker and I am going to make deals -- you know, it will make your head spin how many deals I'm going to make. And I think he's starting to really feel the ability to do that in the office.</s>CAMEROTA: Laura Ingraham, conservative commentator, host on Fox News, radio host, she has, I think, proven herself to be somebody who is willing to call the president out when she's confused about one of his policies, or it seems inconsistent. She's just done so this morning about the ZTE thing. She says, this is extremely disconcerting. Just as Donald Trump is moving public opinion on China, this strange move to help ZTE. Soy beans are not as important as national security. Is North Korea the reason? So, David, I mean do you expect to hear from other people who this is some sort of line for them where they think the president has gone overboard?</s>CHALIAN: Yes, I think you're going to hear from all different corners, both conservative corners and his critics on the left, to -- for clarity here. I think that the president has not spelled out exactly what he's doing with China. We know how much he relied on China to get to the place he is to set up this June 12th meeting with Kim Jong-un. But I think everybody is looking for clarity on what he's doing with China and his tweet confused more than clarified on Sunday.</s>GREGORY: And the question is whether his hard line stance on trade will soften if he gets something from China on North Korea.</s>CHALIAN: Exactly.</s>CAMEROTA: All right, David Chalian, thank you very much for "The Bottom Line."</s>GREGORY: Good to see you.</s>CHALIAN: Thanks, guys.</s>CAMEROTA: We have "The Good Stuff" for you. That's next.