MAGA turns on Lutnick amid China spy scandal
The big picture: Over the past year, Lutnick slow-walked broader administration efforts to address suspicions that Singapore-based company Megaspeed was illegally diverting chips to China, Axios first reported.
Key points
- Jensen Huang’s resignation as Nvidia CEO has brought renewed scrutiny to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his family's financial ties to the chipmaker.
- MAGA commentators are also tearing Lutnick apart on shows like "War Room with Steve Bannon," while Republican senators openly take him to task.
- The president has defended Lutnick time and again, whether over tariffs, immigration or the latest China tussle.
Friction point: The brewing scandal hangs in part on a CIA warning that Jensen Huang was having an affair with Alice Huang, who ran Megaspeed and was also alleged to be a Chinese spy.
Additional details
- Commerce Secretary Lutnick has become the face of the Trump administration's troubled response to Chinese espionage and potential national security threats.
- The bottom line: While Trump continues to defend Lutnick, administration officials and congressional Republicans have clearly picked a target.
- In May, as Trump traveled to China aboard Air Force One, Rubio verbally briefed the president as a "reminder," one of the sources said.
- For the record: " Secretary Lutnick plays a fundamental role in advising the President across many different industries.
- Behind the scenes, the White House has not expressed concern regarding efforts to have Lutnick testify before Congress.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
Advertisement
Every article behind this summary — 2 articles from 2 outlets
Get stories like this in your inbox.
Subscribe — it's freeOne free email at 6am — your topics, deduplicated, five minutes. No account, no paywall.