Donald Trump was told last fall that the head of Nvidia was having an affair with a suspected Chinese spy.
That December, he let Jensen Huang’s company sell advanced AI chips to China, with the U.S. government taking a cut of the sales. When Trump took Huang and other business leaders to Beijing in May, Marco Rubio warned him again on the way there. Huang admitted the affair on Sunday. “I really believe him,” Trump said the next day, and Nvidia’s board kept Huang in his job.
Then reports of two more affairs came out, one with an executive who reported to him, and Huang resigned today. He ran Nvidia for 33 years without naming a successor, so its chief financial officer is now also its chief executive. Republican senators want the commerce secretary to explain in public why his department never blacklisted the company she worked for. Trump said it still isn’t clear she was a spy, then suggested Tim Cook, who just stepped down as Apple’s chief executive, to run Nvidia.
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Tomb of the Unknown Soldier guard orders “silence and respect” after Defense Secretary Hegseth’s group poses for photos in front of it on Veterans Day.
Today’s GovBrief News
Putin tells Trump envoy Witkoff and son-in-law Kushner at the Kremlin that European troops in Ukraine after a ceasefire mean “the war would resume immediately.”
Source: NPR
November 12, 2026Details
Trump pulls Vance off Iran talks to pursue “Corruption and Crime” in Democratic-run cities and states, eight days after Vance blamed the war for Republicans’ midterm losses.
Source: The Guardian
November 12, 2026Details
Trump threatens to double tariffs on Mexico unless it stops migrant caravans that Mexican President Sheinbaum says have not reached US border since January 2025.
Source: The Associated Press
November 12, 2026Details
Trump says “we don’t need a deal with Iran” a day after saying the war would end “soon,” and the White House won’t say if talks are over.
Source: ABC News
November 12, 2026Details
Federal Trade Commission and 17 states win $63M settlement from Family Dollar over claims it charged more at the register than its shelf prices.
Source: Courthouse News Service
November 12, 2026Details
Defense Secretary Hegseth awards a commendation medal to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier guard who told his group to keep silent a day earlier.
Source: UPI
November 12, 2026Details
House Armed Services Democrats say Navy fired three leaders of submarine USS South Dakota without notifying Congress, with the commander’s removal surfacing in a newspaper four weeks later.
Source: Navy Times
November 12, 2026Details
White House took no action after Trump and Rubio learned of Nvidia chief Huang’s affair with a suspected Chinese intelligence source, the Wall Street Journal reports as Huang resigns.
Source: The Wall Street Journal [gift link]
November 12, 2026Details
University of Kentucky drafts policy banning “political activity of any types,” which it doesn’t define, for students, faculty, and visitors using its devices or internet.
Source: The Lexington Herald-Leader
November 12, 2026Details
Democrat Cindy Holscher wins Kansas governor’s race nine days after Election Day, the first Democrat in state history elected to succeed another Democratic governor.
Source: KCTV Kansas City
November 12, 2026Details
Rubio’s at least 23 military-jet trips to Gainesville, many to watch his son’s Florida Gators football games, have cost taxpayers over $1.2M, a Washington Post analysis finds.
Source: The Washington Post [gift link]
November 12, 2026Details
White House chief of staff Miller orders staff to get White House lawyers’ approval before meeting registered lobbyists, in his first week replacing Wiles, a former lobbyist, POLITICO reports.
Source: Politico
November 12, 2026Details
Democratic Reps. Clyburn and McGarvey post a photo of Trump’s under-construction ballroom that Clyburn says is now “bigger than the rest of the White House.”
Source: The Hill
November 12, 2026Details
FAA expands AI air traffic advisory tool to all 22 control centers seven weeks after Washington debut, as controllers’ union says it was not consulted.
Source: Ars Technica
November 12, 2026Details
New York City Council passes ban on charging shoppers different prices based on their personal data, with fines of up to $1,000 per transaction.
Source: Gothamist
November 12, 2026Details