Donald Trump confused some members of his own administration, not to mention the general public, by tweeting on Sunday about his concern for the employees of a large Chinese telecom company that had been sanctioned by the U.S. for doing business with Iran:

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

Trump, of course, campaigned on the premise that America is too soft on Chinese companies that undermine international norms; just last week, he announced that the U.S. would be withdrawing from the multilateral Iran nuclear deal so that it could reimpose sanctions on companies that do business with the Tehran regime.

POTUS attempted to explain himself further on Monday:

ZTE, the large Chinese phone company, buys a big percentage of individual parts from U.S. companies. This is also reflective of the larger trade deal we are negotiating with China and my personal relationship with President Xi. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 14, 2018

The first claim in Trump’s statement—that ZTE buys parts from American companies—is true.

The second—that his concern about the sanctions on ZTE is related to wider trade talks with China—contradicts what his own commerce secretary said earlier Monday.

The third—which implies that smoothing out the personal vibes between Trump and a foreign leader is a valid goal of U.S. foreign and economic policy—is just weird, particularly given how often Trump has complained in the past about China’s leaders browbeating America’s into bad deals!