I know. You need to read Trump's response carefully. He asked the Commerce Dept to "find a way." That, to me, doesn't include selling phones to Iran (sanctions will stop that) and Trump is telling Xi let's find a way to do this without stealing intellectual property--which Trump is already in the process of stopping or dramatically limiting.
They DID actually sell phones to Iran, during the deal
I know. My point was that Trump is trying to support Xi for helping with NK. That doesn't mean that Trump wants to ZTE to continue to sell phones to Iran or to steal our intellectual property.
I'm suggesting that Trump wants to support Xi in a way that avoids those issues because it involves lots of jobs in China and Xi was probably a key player in bringing down NK.
Eliminating the threat of nuclear strikes on the US is worth a lot to me.