Trump Cabinet civil war breaks out after Scott Bessent throws Howard Lutnick under the bus live on CNBC over Nvidia scandal

Detailed summary

Scott Bessent bashed Howard Lutnick for resisting efforts to crack down on a foreign company at the center of the alleged Chinese espionage scandal.

Published: 15:36 GMT, 13 November 2026 | Updated: 15:43 GMT, 13 November 2026

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent bashed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for resisting efforts to crack down on a foreign company at the center of an alleged Chinese espionage scandal.

Former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was ousted from the company he founded after 33 years at the helm on Thursday, following multiple reported affairs, one with a suspected Chinese spy.

Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based data firm Megaspeed and the alleged Chinese spy, is suspected of pushing the ex-Nvidia executive to loosen export restrictions on his company's microchips to markets in Asia.

The export restrictions on Nvidia's cutting-edge chips aim to hamper Chinese AI development and keep the US ahead in the broader race to dominate technology.

But an order to crack down on Megaspeed that circulated within the Commerce Department was never signed off on by Lutnick, sparking a civil war within the administration over who is to blame for the company's ability to siphon off Nvidia's chips and potentially even provide them to China.

'Treasury, War, USTR and State were in favor of putting Megaspeed on the entity list for months,' Bessent told CNBC Friday morning.

'But Commerce has the pen,' he said. 'And you will have to ask them about their internal processes.'

Bessent's statement made it clear that he believes Lutnick and his team are to blame, and that many in the administration warned the Commerce Department to take action against Megaspeed.

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