The agreement allowed US companies to transfer the personal data of Europeans to the US while ensuring that the companies operate within compliance of Europe's more stringent privacy laws.

The deal was greeted with a sigh of relief from 1,500 US companies including Apple, Google and Microsoft which had agreed to abide by the Data Shield agreement. But it required the US Department of Commerce to ensure that American companies complied.

Trump signed an executive order earlier this week which strips any non-US citizen of any privacy rights they might have. The idea is that this will give the US the power to spy on foreigners. It is aimed at enhancing domestic immigration laws.

However, it kills off the US part of the Data Shield agreement, opens the current administration up to sanctions by the EU. Basically it means that any EU data which ends up in the US will not be protected and the US can open it and read it.

The move will make it nearly impossible for US companies to do digital business in the EU. It will go back to the time before the framework agreement where the EU did not want US companies getting lucrative government contracts. Some businesses also were encouraged not to go American because they could be open to being sued by customers if data crossed the pond.

The question is, did Trump know when he was signing a deal which stripped foreigners living in the US of their privacy rights that he was screwing over his big business chums such as Oracle and IBM? After all,  he tells everyone he is smart, and he is supposed to have some good advisers, so it must have been deliberate.

Of course, it is possible that he signed the executive order as part of his crack down on Muslim terrorists without thinking about the wider implications, but that is what stupid leaders do and Trump is smart.

We guess Oracle and IBM will be on the blower soon. Both want to make his database of Muslims and we guess they will not want him to stuff up their Europe business clouds.