White House discussing Howard Lutnick’s future as Commerce secretary, insiders say

WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Senior White House officials are discussing whether Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick should be ousted in the wake of the spying scandal surrounding former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, two people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

A growing number of lawmakers have criticized Lutnick over the administration’s refusal to add dozens of Chinese companies “to a key trade blacklist” of the United States, and over whether the government was properly overseeing Nvidia’s exports to China.

Criticism of Lutnick’s actions predates Huang’s resignation Thursday from Nvidia, which announced he would step down as CEO of the leading AI chipmaker after revelations of an affair with Alice Huang, whom U.S. authorities suspect of spying for Beijing. But the accusation that Lutnick hasn’t done enough to restrict shipments of AI chips to China has surfaced as the fallout from Jensen Huang’s actions grows.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Lutnick’s future.

A White House official said of criticism of Lutnick that President Donald Trump “maintains complete confidence in the secretary and his ability to ‘perform his duties.’

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Jonathan Landay; editing by Chris Sanders, Colleen Jenkins and Chizu Nomiyama)