Trump honored Huang after some officials knew of the allegations
According to The Wall Street Journal, Huang disclosed the relationship on Sunday, and Nvidia is probing whether he shared sensitive corporate or national-security information. The person involved was working with Nvidia to build data centers, and U.S. officials had concluded that the person was sharing information with Chinese intelligence.
The Journal described Huang as perhaps Trump’s closest adviser in the AI space, a field the White House treats as core to its economic and national-security strategy. Huang has also had a voice in some of the U.S. government’s most sensitive decisions about technology, and the U.S. AI strategy is a large part of the country’s strategy toward China.
Trump awarded Huang the National Medal of Science one month before the disclosure, according to the report, even though a number of people inside the government already knew about the allegations at that time.
Top Republicans on Capitol Hill sent Huang a letter last week demanding answers about the relationship. The Journal said Trump could also be forced to explain more soon about what he knew of the affair and when.
Hegseth faces an expected House impeachment vote
The House is expected to vote this week on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, with Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky leading the effort, the Journal reported.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) said Sunday that he was a “hard yes” on the measure and has said that “running Hegseth out of town” is one of his top priorities. Rep. French Hill (R., Ark.) suggested Sunday that Trump should consider removing Hegseth from office, though he declined to say how he might vote on impeachment.
Damian Paletta wrote, “The dynamic on Capitol Hill has changed. We’ll see how much it has changed this week.”
Post-midterm disputes involve Trump allies and Democrats
The Wall Street Journal reported that a threatening text exchange between James Blair and Calley Means, two former senior advisers to the president, has laid bare infighting among Trump’s allies as they swap blame for the Republican Party’s losses in the midterms. Some of the infighting has centered on allegations of profiting from connections to the Trump administration.
Democrats look to make progress on the economy following their midterm victory. Voters who powered the party’s win delivered the message, “Make the economy work for us.” Whether Democrats can deliver is uncertain despite the party’s pending control of the House and Senate.
In his first sit-down interview with 60 Minutes since his party’s midterm defeat, Trump floated a deal with Democrats on immigration, suggested he might not endorse a Republican successor ahead of the 2028 election and said he had no intention of forgiving his political enemies. Trump also said his administration’s pursuit of mass deportations might have been “too tough.”
White House week includes climate, G-7 and Qatar meetings
The annual United Nations Climate Conference kicked off Monday in Antalya, Turkey, and is scheduled to run through Nov. 20. G-7 foreign ministers were due to meet for two days in Paris to coordinate their positions on major current events.
Trump was scheduled to meet Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani at the White House at noon ET and had several other policy meetings scheduled during the day.
Damian Paletta, The Wall Street Journal’s Washington coverage chief, wrote the account. He said he had covered Washington for 22 years as a reporter and editor, including the White House, Congress, national security, the federal budget, economics and multiple market meltdowns. The edition was curated and edited in collaboration with Joe Erwin and Alina Heineke, and WSJ Politics publishes its guide every weekday morning.