'Wild pendulum swings': How 'TACO' Trump 'flip-flopped' on key tech policy

15 July

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks with the media after attending the FIFA Club World Cup final upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S, July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

In April, the U.S. Commerce Department enacted a policy that restricted sales of the company Nvidia's H20 computer chips to Mainland China. But according to the Daily Beast's Janna Brancolini, President Donald Trump is reversing that decision after a meeting with the company's leader, Jensen Huang.

"Last week," Brancolini explains in an article published on July 15, "Huang met with Trump to personally lobby for a reversal, according to the Wall Street Journal. He argued that allowing Nvidia to sell its technology worldwide would result in American companies dominating artificial intelligence instead of Chinese companies."

Brancolini continues, "The chips are used in cutting-edge data centers that train AI models and operate AI applications. Doing business in China would allow Nvidia to tap the country's AI talent, Huang reportedly told Trump. He made a similar case to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, according to the Journal."

Brancolini notes that when Huang spoke to reporters in Beijing on Monday, July 14, he said that half of the world's researchers for artificial intelligence (AI) are based in China.

Huang himself, however, is not from Beijing. The businessman was born in Taiwan, not Mainland China, and has lived in the U.S. since the age of nine.

"Huang was part of a posse of tech leaders — which included Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk and Alphabet chief investment officer Ruth Porat — who accompanied Trump to Saudi Arabia for a Saudi-U.S. business investment forum," Brancolini observes. "The Nvidia chief has generally tried to stay out of politics but was forced to enter the fray thanks to the president's wild pendulum swings on tariff and export control policies, the latter of which Huang called a 'failure' in May, according to the Journal."

Brancolini adds, "The president has flip-flopped so much on trade threats that in May, Wall Street traders nicknamed him 'TACO” for 'Trump Always Chickens Out.' Huang spoke at the White House in late April during an 'Investing in America' event highlighting domestic manufacturing investments. Nvidia had recently announced that it was working to build its AI supercomputers entirely in the U.S."

Read the full Daily Beast article at this link (subscription required).

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