CNN’s resident MAGA cheerleader Scott Jennings had a rare change of tune as he mocked President Donald Trump over his handling of the scandal surrounding Nvidia’s ex-CEO Jensen Huang.
Jennings was discussing the implications of Trump’s close relationship with Huang following revelations that the tech billionaire had an affair with a woman believed by U.S. intelligence to be a Chinese spy.
Trump and his lieutenants have landed in hot water after it emerged that the president was reportedly warned roughly a year ago that Huang’s mistress was a Chinese spy.
“I did have to chuckle at the president’s comment, though,” Jennings, 49, admitted during a discussion Thursday on CNN’s The Arena with Kasie Hunt.
He was referring to Trump’s claim that Huang told him he had “absolutely no idea” that his mistress had been a spy all along.
“And I really believe him,” Trump told reporters on Monday.
“Well, no kidding!” Jennings said, prompting laughter from the other panelists. “They don’t walk up and say, ‘I’m a Chinese spy. Would you like to get dinner?’ I mean, you know, of course you wouldn’t know it was a Chinese spy.”
Jennings, a former George W. Bush administration official and adviser to Sen. Mitch McConnell, said it was a “reminder” that “these people are the enemy.”
“They are our enemy. They are our adversary — economically, geopolitically, militarily,” he said.
Trump and his lieutenants have themselves landed in hot water after it emerged that the president was reportedly warned roughly a year ago that Huang’s mistress, Alice Huang—who is not related to the ex-Nvidia boss—was a Chinese spy, but chose to take no action, and that Alice Huang’s company Megaspeed escaped U.S. sanctions.
Howard Lutnick, a close friend of Huang, has come under fire for failing to blacklist Megaspeed, a company led by Huang’s alleged honey trap, over its ties to China.
But Jennings refused to go so far as to directly call out the president over his failure to act on the warnings about Huang.
“Do you think that the president should have allowed him to fly on Air Force One if he knew that he was sleeping with an alleged Chinese spy?” Hunt asked.
“I would rather not say,” Jennings said, claiming he didn’t know the “timeline.”
“I don’t think we know enough yet to start casting aspersions on the president,” he added.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Much of the backlash has centered on Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a close friend of Huang. His department has come under scrutiny for failing to blacklist Megaspeed, a major Nvidia customer, over its ties to China.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threw Lutnick under the bus on Friday, telling CNBC’s Joe Kernen that the Treasury Department had sought to sanction Megaspeed for “months” and pointing to the Commerce Department as the obstacle.
“But Commerce has the pen. Commerce BIS has the pen, and you will have to ask them about their internal process,” he said, referencing the Bureau of Industry and Security.
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