President Donald Trump has commented in detail for the first time on the Huawei firestorm after his administration blacklisted the Chinese tech giant last week.

In a single sentence, he said Huawei presented a "very dangerous" security risk but could also form part of a trade deal between the US and China.

Trump did not explain how Huawei could go from being a national security threat to a bargaining chip.

His administration has been trying to treat Huawei and the trade dispute as separate issues, but Trump has now repeatedly undermined this effort.

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US President Donald Trump has made his first meaningful remarks on the Huawei firestorm since his administration blacklisted the Chinese tech giant last week.

Trump was speaking at a news conference announcing a $16 billion aid package for farmers caught up in the US-China trade war when he addressed Huawei, the Chinese company that has been placed on a list mandating that US firms get the US government's permission to do business with it.

Trump started out by saying Huawei posed a huge security threat to the US. American officials have long floated suspicions that Huawei could act as a conduit for Chinese surveillance.

"Huawei is something that's very dangerous," Trump told reporters. "You look at what they've done from a security standpoint, from a military standpoint, it's very dangerous."

Read more: Here are all the companies that have cut ties with Huawei, dealing the Chinese tech giant a crushing blow

He immediately switched gears, however, to suggest that Huawei could form part of a trade deal between the US and China. "So it's possible that Huawei even would be included in some kind of a trade deal," he said. "If we made a deal, I could imagine Huawei being possibly included in some form."

—TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) May 23, 2019

Here's a transcript of the full exchange:

Trump: "Huawei is something that's very dangerous. You look at what they've done from a security standpoint, from a military standpoint, it's very dangerous. So, it's possible that Huawei even would be included in some kind of a trade deal. If we made a deal, I could imagine Huawei being possibly included in some form of, or some part of a trade deal."

Journalist: "How would that look?"

Trump: "It would look very good for us."

Journalist: "But the Huawei part, how would you design that?"

Trump: "Oh it's too early to say. We're just very concerned about Huawei from a security standpoint."

Trump did not explain how Huawei could go from being a "very dangerous" national security threat to a key cog in a trade settlement between the US and China.

Russell Brandom, the policy editor for the tech news site The Verge, said the two remarks were "incompatible." In an op-ed article, he added: "They only make sense if the security threat is a bluff. You can't negotiate away a security threat as part of a trade deal."

Trump's remarks also represent a doubling down on an intervention he made in the Huawei dispute in December. His administration had been trying to treat the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou and the US-China trade talks as two separate issues, but Trump then suggested Meng could be used as a bargaining chip in the trade talks. His comments Thursday linked the issues of Huawei and the China trade war even more directly.