Not since US President Rutherford Hayes had a telephone installed on his White House desk in 1877 has a US leader been quite as directly interested in telecoms as the current incumbent. President Trump has placed telecoms networks, 5G in particular, at the center of his battles with China over trade, cybersecurity and global dominance. Creating a US-centric 5G industry, and squeezing Huawei out of all the USA’s 5G and, now, government networks have become quests that are symbolic of far broader geopolitical feuds. But genuine US-driven progress is sometimes, ironically, put at risk by these policies, and by the president’s direct interventions. Only last week, the re-nomination of FCC commissioner Michael O’Rielly, who has done so much to transform…