WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Senior White House officials are discussing whether Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick should be pushed out in the wake of the spy scandal surrounding Nvidia’s now former CEO Jensen Huang, two people familiar with the situation said on Thursday.
A growing number of lawmakers criticized Lutnick over the administration’s refusal to add dozens of Chinese companies to a key US trade blacklist, and over whether the government was properly overseeing Nvidia’s exports to China.
Criticism of Lutnick’s actions predates Thursday’s resignation of Nvidia’s Huang, who announced he would step down as CEO of the leading AI chipmaker after revelations of an affair with Alice Huang, whom US authorities suspect of spying for Beijing. But the charge that Lutnick has not done enough to restrict AI chip shipments to China has bubbled up as the fallout of Jensen Huang’s actions grows.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Lutnick’s future.
A White House official said of criticism of Lutnick that President Donald Trump “maintains complete confidence in the secretary and his ability to carry out the position.”
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Jonathan Landay; editing by Chris Sanders, Colleen Jenkins and Chizu Nomiyama)
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