Axios reported Wednesday afternoon that one Cabinet official in President Donald Trump's administration is the reason there hasn't been an espionage investigation into the CEO of Nvidia, who was in a relationship with a woman that U.S. intelligence believed to be a spy.
It was reported this week that members of Trump's Cabinet were briefed on the spy that chip maker Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang admitted to having an extramarital affair with. Now, New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman reports that the president also received a briefing on the matter. Trump previously denied he knew anything about it.
Huang and Trump have built a close relationship as Trump continues to take advantage of the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act. There's now a fear about whether Huang's relationship with Alice Huang (also known as Huang Le), resulted in intelligence being obtained for China.
Alice Huang is a businesswoman for Megaspeed whom U.S. intelligence officials long suspected of spying for China, and her relationship with Jensen Huang could have resulted in an effort to get restricted AI chips to China. Nvidia has worked to persuade Washington to loosen restrictions on exports of its advanced chips to China.
Last week, Trump authorized a crackdown on companies suspected of diverting advanced AI chips to China, including Nvidia's.
One official has been standing in the way: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
"This standoff illustrates a breakdown in efforts to keep American technology out of China's hands as the world wonders why the Trump administration has not taken action against the company at the center of suspected chip smuggling — and an espionage scandal," Axios said in the Wednesday report.
Lutnick was forced into a Situation Room meeting with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the report said. There, Bessent hammered Lutnick on why his department hasn't wanted to implement export controls on Alice Huang's Megaspeed. Lutnick was standing on an island over the tech giants, and the other Cabinet officials wanted to know why.
Lutnick finally relented, but then mumbled, "I need to check with the president."
But that comment "raised concerns" for the other Cabinet members, sources told Axios. Officials have waited for the Commerce Department to impose the export controls, but they never have.
"He's stalling it out," one official told Axios. He'd previously met with Trump about it and managed to change his mind on the export limit.
"This is an ongoing concern with Howard and this issue," another official said.
One person in the meeting with the Cabinet members called Lutnick's bluff, announcing, "Great. Why don't we do it today?"
So, they headed to the Oval Office to inform the president.
Trump even had Elon Musk approve the move. Lutnick reportedly complained that it would "start a trade war with China."
"Everyone argued back that China is already doing to us what Lutnick warned would happen," a source told Axios.
Suddenly, Lutnick came up with a new delay tactic, saying he would "develop some options and come back."
"Everyone was like: 'No, no, the decision's been made. Go f—— execute,'" said a source. "Well, it still hasn't happened."
