Lutnick Fights to Keep Job as White House Weighs Firing Over Nvidia Scandal
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick faces questions over his job after Nvidia chief Jensen Huang resigned amid a spy-plot report. White House officials are reportedly discussing whether to fire him, while the commerce department denies a clash with the Treasury secretary.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is fighting to keep his job after White House officials reportedly began discussing whether President Donald Trump should fire him over the Nvidia spy scandal, according to reports published on November 13, 2026.
Officials are questioning his future, which cited two unnamed people familiar with the situation.
What triggered the backlash
Lutnick has been criticized for apparent inaction after he was sent an intelligence report about an alleged plot by Beijing targeting Nvidia, the AI chip maker.
Jensen Huang, Nvidia's chief executive, resigned on Thursday. The resignation followed reports that he had an affair with Alice Huang, a businesswoman US intelligence suspected of being a spy.
A US intelligence report circulated among senior Trump administration figures earlier this year reportedly warned about the relationship.
The Megaspeed question
Alice Huang was associated with a company called Megaspeed. Megaspeed has bought billions of dollars' worth of Nvidia chips in recent years.
Despite the reported concerns inside the administration, the commerce department did not add Megaspeed to its blacklist of companies seen as national security risks.
Lutnick reportedly clashed with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at a White House Situation Room meeting last week. Bessent allegedly asked why Megaspeed had not been blacklisted. The commerce department said the reports of a confrontation were "false".
Ties between Nvidia and Trump
Nvidia is one of the most important AI companies in the US. Huang built a close relationship with Trump after the president returned to the White House last year.
The company donated $25m to help build the president's White House ballroom. Huang also accompanied Trump on a trip to China in May.
Not the first challenge
Questions about Lutnick's position have come up before. Democratic and Republican politicians called for him to resign after he appeared in the Epstein files released earlier this year.
Before joining the administration, Lutnick was chairman and chief executive of the investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald. On Wall Street he lived next door to Jeffrey Epstein and visited Epstein's island in 2012, several years after he had claimed to have cut off contact with him.
Congress later questioned Lutnick about the relationship. He admitted having lunch with Epstein on the island but played down the connection. "I barely had anything to do with him," he told the committee.
