Trump Meeting With Top CEO
President Donald Trump will meet with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan at the White House on Monday—just days after publicly calling for Tan’s resignation over alleged business links to Communist China.
The high-stakes meeting follows Trump’s renewed push for American companies to cut ties with foreign adversaries, protect U.S. national security, and bring high-paying manufacturing jobs back home.
Tan, who emigrated from Malaysia and later became a U.S. citizen, is expected to defend his record, stress his loyalty to the United States, and outline how Intel can align more closely with Trump’s “America First” manufacturing agenda.
Concerns over Tan’s leadership erupted when Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) warned of his past connections to Chinese companies and his role at Cadence Design Systems—a firm that just paid $140 million to settle Justice Department charges for selling technology to a Chinese military university.
Appointed in March, Tan was initially praised by Wall Street for his experience and turnaround track record. But behind the scenes, strategic clashes with Intel’s board have surfaced. Meanwhile, the company—America’s largest beneficiary of the Biden-era “Chips Act”—has pledged $100 billion for U.S. chip production. Delays in building massive Ohio plants have fueled political backlash, with critics questioning whether taxpayer money is being well spent.
In a message to employees, Tan insisted that the U.S. has been his home for over 40 years and maintained he has “always operated within the highest legal and ethical standards.”
Trump’s meeting with Tan underscores his broader warning to corporate America: taxpayer funding should strengthen America’s economy—not prop up China’s. The outcome could shape the future of U.S. technology, jobs, and national security.
