What did Donald Trump do today?

He was "surprised" by the news that China and Russia were selling arms to Iran and have been for decades.

Asked today about the latest reports that China is planning another arms shipment to Iran, Trump said that he would find it "surprising" if that were true, and that he'd be "disappointed."

China is planning another arms shipment to Iran. 

In fact, China has supplied arms to Iran for decades, although for diplomatic purposes it has usually publicly denied it. China is also a major consumer of Iranian oil (which has been under international sanctions for many years) and is Iran's largest overall trading partner.

The two countries are not close military allies, and there are no strong cultural or geopolitical ties between them, other than that neither are aligned with the United States. China, like Russia, has a vested interest in the degrading effect that Trump's war has on American military readiness and its status as a world leader. 

Trump's argument against the latest arms deal, which is sourced to US intelligence agencies, is that China's president Xi Jinping "told [him] very strongly" that no such deal would be made. He added in a social media post that "in his opinion" neither China nor Russia were selling arms to Iran.

Russia is also selling arms to Iran.
 

Why does this matter?

• Countries always act in their own best interests, not what is best for Donald Trump.

• There is gullible, and then there is taking the word of the dictators of hostile nations over the evidence supplied by your own intelligence agencies. 

• Donald Trump's "disappointment" is not a threat to Xi Jinping.