Overview
- Senior administration officials told Axios that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pressed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in a Situation Room meeting over delays to export controls meant to stop advanced AI chips reaching China.
- Those officials say they took the dispute to the Oval Office, President Trump phoned Elon Musk who backed the restrictions, and Trump reportedly authorized moving ahead with the measures.
- Despite that reported presidential approval, sources say the export controls have still not been implemented, creating a gap between decision and action.
- Axios counted multiple instances this year in which Lutnick intervened to slow measures that had been signed off elsewhere in the administration.
- Commerce spokesperson Kristen Eichamer disputed the claim that Bessent confronted Lutnick, leaving central details contested as national security and trade officials push for enforcement and tighter controls on suspected smuggling networks such as Megaspeed.