Trump Downplays Spy Claims Against Jensen Huang as Summit With Xi Looms in 1 Week
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Nov 11
Trump Downplays Spy Claims Against Jensen Huang as Summit With Xi Looms in 1 Week
3 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Nov 11
Summary
A week before his planned Shenzhen summit with Xi Jinping, Trump said allegations that Jensen Huang had an affair with a suspected Chinese spy "didn't make much of an impact" and said he may not raise the matter with Xi.
Marco Rubio had warned Trump in May aboard Air Force One that U.S. intelligence believed Huang was involved with a woman tied to Chinese intelligence, undercutting Trump's Monday claim that he was unaware at the time of his China trip.
Trump still kept Huang close—bringing him on that trip, speaking with him regularly and publicly backing Nvidia's ability to sell some chips, including H200s, into China despite objections from administration hawks.
Democrats, soon to control both chambers of Congress, called the response a national-security failure and said they are seeking more information on whether chip-export decisions were improperly influenced.
The episode sharpens a broader contradiction in Trump's China policy: warning that Beijing threatens U.S. AI leadership while preserving a diplomatic thaw with Xi and ties to a tech executive central to chip sales into China.