It’s taken a while, but certain facts about last week’s election seem to be slowly penetrating the president’s brain.
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facts → take → brain
Yesterday, in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump started a standard everybody-loves-me brag: “I think my level of popularity, maybe, is higher now than it was [in 2024].”
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it → start → 2024
Then he pulled up: “I’m not sure.
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I → pull → ?
It feels to me that maybe it would be higher, other than what happened at the midterms.”
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what → feel → midterms
The China Chips scandal seems to be unraveling at warp speed.
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scandal → seem → speed
Two weeks ago, the New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence had concluded that Alice Huang, a top executive at the Singapore-based firm Megaspeed, was in a “close relationship” with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and that she is likely a Chinese intelligence asset.
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she → report → Huang
This past weekend, the Times further reported that National Security Advisor Marco Rubio had advised the president of this, but that Trump nonetheless persisted in maintaining his close relationship with Jensen Huang.
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Trump → report → Huang
Yesterday, reacting to the reports of Jensen Huang’s personal relationships with Alice Huang and subordinates at Nvidia, but also, one suspects, aware of possible widespread corporate evasion of U.S. export control laws, the Nvidia board announced his resignation as president, CEO, and a member of the company’s board.
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board → react → board
That’s a start.
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That → ’ → ?
But it’s only a start.
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it → ’ → ?
Leaving aside the question of who else at Nvidia was aware of its corporate malfeasance, one should note that in this kind of national security scandal, it takes two to tango: the corporation and the Trump administration.
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it → leave → two
Nvidia has at least begun to deal with its scandalous behavior.
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Nvidia → begin → behavior
The Trump administration has done nothing.
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administration → do → nothing
This administration is not going to investigate itself.
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administration → go → itself
It’s not going to explain why, as Catherine Rampell put it so well, it was “so keen to protect its friends, and so eager to juice the stock market, that it was willing to trade away U.S. interests.”
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it → go → interests
It’s not going to help uncover why “officials bent U.S. policy to be more favorable to Nvidia and China, and to make it easier for the former to supply the latter.”
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former → go → latter
It’s not going to detail just how the Commerce Department stalled action against companies suspected of diverting Nvidia chips to China, and helped other companies evade national security restrictions on dealing with China.
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companies → go → China
It’s not going to ask why Commerce declined to put Alice Huang’s company, Megaspeed, on the trade restriction list, or why Commerce has gone more than a year without adding any company to that list.
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Commerce → go → list
And it’s not just the Trump Commerce Department.
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it → ’ → ?
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the Trump Justice Department and FBI have, over the last year, “rebuffed requests from Singaporean authorities to assist with its investigation into Alice Huang and Megaspeed.”
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Department → report → Huang
Singapore’s government suspected that Megaspeed, based in Singapore, “was illegally rerouting high-end Nvidia chips to China in violation of American export controls.”
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Megaspeed → suspect → controls
And many others in the administration kept quiet as they saw the selling out of national security interests proceeding around them—only now claiming they were concerned.
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they → keep → them
Because they work for President Donald Trump.
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they → work → Trump
And the central figure in this scandal is not Commerce Secretary Howark Lutnick, though I’d be he’ll soon be its designated scapegoat.
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he → designate → scandal
It was at a $1-million-per-plate candlelight dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Trump in April 2025 where Huang appears to have first persuaded Trump to postpone planned restrictions on chip sales to China.
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Huang → appear → China
It was to Trump’s ballroom that Nvidia made a $25 million donation.
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Nvidia → make → donation
It was Trump who yesterday praised Huang for having done a “fantastic job,” and who reportedly encouraged Huang not to leave his post.
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who → praise → post
(Indeed, upon his departure, Trump suggested on Truth Social that “there is only one man to take his place—TIM COOK of Apple.”
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Trump → suggest → Apple
Apple was the other company that gave $25 million to the ballroom.
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that → give → ballroom
And it’s Trump who flies to China next week to meet with Xi Jinping.
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who → ’ → Jinping
I doubt Lutnick will join him.
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Lutnick → doubt → him
Needless to say, the Trump Justice Department will have zero interest in investigating this scandal.
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Department → say → scandal
Previous Justice Departments appointed special counsels to investigate Watergate, and Iran-Contra, Russian interference in the 2016 election, and for that matter Hunter Biden’s dealings with China and Eric Swalwell’s relationship with an alleged Chinese spy.
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Departments → appoint → spy
But we no longer have a Justice Department with even a pretense of independence.
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we → have → independence
In fact, we have one that appears to be rushing to excuse Huang—or, at least, to cast doubt on the severity of the accusations against him.
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that → have → him
Which means we are more dependent than ever on Congress.
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we → mean → Congress
Congress has plenty of ability to discover the truth, even if the Trump White House and Justice Department try to cover up and stonewall.
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House → have → truth
It can reach into the bureaucracy to ask questions, and it can reach into Nvidia to uncover communications with the administration.
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it → reach → administration
Determined and tough-minded congressional investigators have many levers to pull.
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investigators → have → levers
It’s encouraging that some members of Congress have begun to act.
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members → ’ → Congress
…and 51 more, not listed.
The Aporia
