Trump’s Inner Circle Throws Howard Lutnick Under the Bus

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Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Chris Coons of Delaware wrote to Lutnick, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, demanding…

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is facing mounting pressure from within President Donald Trump's administration as the fallout from the Nvidia espionage scandal threatens his position in the Cabinet.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pointed to Lutnick's department on Friday, saying several major government agencies had supported blacklisting a Singapore-based company at the center of the scandal for months, but that Commerce had the final say.

The remarks came a day after Reuters reported that senior White House officials were discussing whether Lutnick should be pushed out, citing two people familiar with the situation.

The controversy has intensified following the resignation of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang this week amid revelations about his relationship with an executive at Megaspeed, a company suspected of helping China obtain advanced American artificial intelligence chips.

Newsweek reached out to the White House and Commerce Department for comment on Friday.

Appearing on CNBC's Squawk Box, Bessent was asked about reports of tensions between himself and Lutnick over the administration's failure to place Megaspeed on the U.S. government's Entity List, which imposes licensing restrictions on exports of sensitive American technology to designated companies.

Bessent said several other agencies had supported blacklisting the company.

"Treasury, War, USTR, and State, they were in favor of putting Megaspeed on the entity list for months," Bessent said, referring to the Treasury, Defense and State departments and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

"But Commerce has the pen, Commerce BIS has the pen, and you will have to ask them about their internal processes."

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