The only thing standing between Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his firing is his longtime friendship with President Donald Trump.
According to Politico, Lutnick faces the most serious threat to his job since joining the Cabinet, as the Nvidia scandal draws bipartisan fire over how his department handled the chipmaker and the risk of advanced U.S. chips reaching China. Critics inside the administration blame his close relationship with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang for lax oversight. Huang resigned Monday.
Lawmakers now want Lutnick to answer for it. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, sent a letter Thursday night asking him to appear voluntarily before the panel. Sen. Jim Banks, a Republican on the committee, accused Lutnick of defying Trump’s orders on Nvidia’s Blackwell chips and called for an investigation, Politico reported.
Frustration runs deep inside the administration as well, according to the report. One senior official called the episode “a complete and utter disaster” and said it sums up the past year and a half of dealing with Commerce. China hawks have long chafed at what they see as Lutnick’s hands-off approach to the tech industry.
Seven current and former officials told Politico this controversy is far more serious than earlier attacks on Lutnick, including scrutiny of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Still, several doubt Trump will cut him loose. The two men have been friends for more than 30 years. Their bond deepened after the Sept. 11 attacks killed 658 employees of Lutnick’s firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, among them his brother. That loyalty helped Lutnick survive the backlash over the 2025 “Liberation Day” tariffs.
One official added that Trump’s own role in chip-export decisions makes it hard to pin the blame on Lutnick alone. The White House says the president has complete confidence in his Commerce secretary.
That has some officials eyeing a different target: Jeffrey Kessler, the undersecretary who oversees technology exports. Kessler reportedly halted a probe into Singapore-based Megaspeed after Nvidia intervened.
“If there is a fall guy, Kessler makes a lot of sense,” a former Commerce Department official told Politico. “The president and Lutnick are very good friends and have been for years. I don’t think he would take anything out on his friend. I imagine there would not be an issue in making Kessler the issue.”
Others push back. They say Lutnick keeps "such tight control that subordinates" line up outside his office for approval, like students waiting for a professor’s office hours.