Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Steven Terner MnuchinOn The Money: Powell, Mnuchin stress limits of emergency loans | House seeks to salvage vote on spending bill | Economists tell lawmakers: Kill the virus to heal the economy Economists spanning spectrum say recovery depends on containing virus Powell, Mnuchin stress limits of current emergency lending programs MORE said Sunday that it isn’t surprising that China’s president asked President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE to look into the Chinese telecommunications firm sanctioned by the U.S. government.

“President Xi [Jinping] asked President Trump to look into this. That’s not a surprise,” Mnuchin told “Fox News Sunday."

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Mnuchin said Trump, who received criticism last week after saying he would help ZTE get “back into business,” is working to protect American jobs and technology.

“The president wants us to be very tough on ZTE. And all he did was ask the secretary to look into this," Mnuchin said, referring to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Wilbur Louis RossTrump admin asks Supreme Court to fast-track excluding people in U.S. illegally from census Trump 'very happy' to allow TikTok to operate in US if security concerns resolved TikTok, WeChat to be banned Sunday from US app stores MORE.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle raised concerns over Trump’s recent tweets about ZTE.

The Commerce Department earlier this year prohibited American companies from selling materials to ZTE, claiming the firm had violated U.S. sanctions.

Following his comments about opening the U.S. market back up to ZTE, the president last week accused some news outlets of writing "false stories" about U.S.-China trade talks.

"Nothing has happened with ZTE except as it pertains to the larger trade deal," Trump wrote on Twitter on May 16.