President Donald Trump’s decision to let U.S. tech giant Nvidia sell more advanced semiconductors to China is getting pushback from some Republicans wary of giving Beijing an edge in the global race to AI dominance.

The agreement, which Trump announced in a Truth Social post Monday evening, would allow Nvidia to sell its H200 artificial intelligence chips to China on the condition that the U.S. government gets 25% of the sales.

The H200 chips aren’t Nvidia’s most advanced, but are more powerful than the company’s H20s, which were previously developed specifically for the China market.

The White House, over the summer, gave approval for Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices to sell their less-powerful chips to China in exchange for 15% of sales revenue. Beijing reportedly told companies not to buy those chips.

Chinese President Xi Jinping “responded positively” to the latest proposal, Trump wrote in the social media post.

CNBC has reached out to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.

Experts warn that giving China access to the better chips will shrink America’s hardware advantage and help Chinese developers vastly improve their AI models and other tech.

Some of Trump’s Republican allies appear to agree.

“Alarm bells go off in my head here,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told CNBC on Tuesday when asked about the chip sales agreement.

“I don’t mind doing normal business with China. But if you can prove to me this will accelerate their military capability, I’ll oppose it,” Graham said.

“My general view on this is that China’s progress on AI is almost entirely parasitic on our technology, in particular on our hardware,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said on Capitol Hill earlier Tuesday.

“So I don’t want China to win the AI race. I want to win the AI race,” Hawley said. “But if we want to beat China, I think we need to constrain their ability to leverage our own technology, and I think we would want to reduce their access to our hardware, not increase it.”

Hawley did not directly criticize Trump, and noted that the president is privy to more information about the situation than he is. “So I think he deserves some deference here,” Hawley said.

“But I think in the general matter I would want to constrain American hardware going to China,” he added.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, asked about the chip agreement, was more succinct.

“I’m concerned,” he said. Cornyn did not respond to follow-up questions.

The U.S. House Select Committee on China, a Republican-led panel formed to focus on the “threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party,” echoed Hawley’s concerns.

“Right now, China is far behind the United States in chips that power the AI race. Because the H200s are far better than what China can produce domestically, both in capability and scale, @nvidia selling these chips to China could help it catch up to America in total compute,” the committee said in a statement on X.

Beijing will use the H200s, which boast significantly more processing power and memory bandwidth than China’s top chips, “to strengthen its military capabilities and totalitarian surveillance,” the panel’s statement said.

“Finally, Nvidia should be under no illusions – China will rip off its technology, mass produce it themselves, and seek to end Nvidia as a competitor,” the panel said. “That is China’s playbook and it is using it in every critical industry.”

Asked for comment on the GOP lawmakers’ remarks, White House spokesman Kush Desai told CNBC, “The Trump administration is committed to ensuring the dominance of the American tech stack – without compromising on national security.”

Not all Republicans are piling on.

“I don’t have a real problem with providing them some [chips],” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told CNBC. “But we’ve got to know where it is, how they’re using it, those sorts of things.”

But there is vocal support among both parties for slowing China’s ability to obtain the world’s best chips.

Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., last week introduced bipartisan legislation that would direct the Trump administration to deny export licenses for advanced chips to China and other foreign adversaries for at least 30 months.

“The best AI chips are made by American companies. Denying Beijing access to these AI chips is essential to our national security,” Ricketts said in a press release unveiling the bill.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., one of the bill’s co-sponsors, said, “It’s crucial that we protect American AI innovation from Communist China to win the AI race.”

Democrats have been sounding alarms about the Trump administration’s willingness to sell China better AI chips.

Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., slammed the Trump administration’s “haphazard and transactional approach to export policy,” saying it “risks squandering U.S. AI leadership and deferring to the People’s Republic of China up and down the AI stack.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., highlighted the fact that the Department of Justice touted a crackdown on a “major China-linked AI tech smuggling network” shortly before Trump announced the H200 sales agreement.

“Trump is letting NVIDIA export cutting-edge AI chips that his own DOJ revealed are being illegally smuggled into China,” she wrote on X.

“His own DOJ called these chips ‘building blocks of AI superiority,'” she noted.

Warren added that she wants Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to “answer to Congress on why they are selling out US security.”

— CNBC’s Mary Catherine Wellons and Justin Papp contributed to this report.

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Burchett appeared on Hunt’s show “The Arena” to discuss corruption in Washington when the congressman’s feed was lost mid-rant.

“The real problem, ma’am, is the politicians are greedy and they’re selling this country down the road,” Burchett said before Hunt pressed, “Yourself included?”

CNN anchor Kasie Hunt’s interview with Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) was abruptly cut off Tuesday. X/atrupar

“Well, they’re sellin’ us all down the road. I don’t, I don’t go with them, but you don’t see me —” Burchett replied before Hunt interjected, “But you’re a politician.”

“Well, heck yeah, I am, and you’re in the media, so we’re both hated,” Burchett shot back.

As the Tennessee lawmaker continued blasting lobbyists and “five-dollar-bill”-chasing politicians, his video connection dropped.

“Well, it looks like we lost this politician,” Hunt said on air.

Hunt said she was about to ask about convicted sex predator Jeffrey Epstein and alleged “preferential treatment” for his former associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. X/atrupar

“I was going to ask him about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s apparent preferential treatment. We’re not going to have a chance to do that now, hopefully next time.”

Hunt did not elaborate on what she planned to ask, but her comment came as lawmakers in Washington raise questions over Maxwell’s current status at a federal prison in Texas.

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Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee claimed this week that the British socialite is being “waited on hand and foot” and enjoying unusually relaxed conditions for a convicted sex trafficker.

In 2022, Maxwell, 63, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping Epstein recruit and groom underage girls.

Burchett appeared on Hunt’s show “The Arena” to discuss corruption in Washington when the congressman’s feed was lost mid-rant. X/atrupar

Earlier this week, Democrats claimed that Maxwell was planning to apply for a commutation of her sentence, which is set to run through 2037. President Trump recently deflected questions about whether he would grant a request for clemency.

She was transferred to a low-security facility in Fort Worth following meetings between Trump-era Justice Department officials and her legal team.

Burchett and other lawmakers from both parties have demanded the release of documents tied to Jeffrey Epstein. AP

Epstein, a former financier with ties to Trump and other prominent figures, died in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

The Justice Department ruled his death a suicide, though the circumstances — including broken cameras and missing guards — fueled widespread skepticism.

Democrats say Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell plans to ask President Trump for a commutation of her sentence. ZUMA24.com

Earlier this year, Trump’s Justice Department reaffirmed that conclusion and said there was no evidence Epstein trafficked women for “high-profile friends and clients,” despite repeated claims by victims and their attorneys.

Burchett has publicly said he does not trust that finding, urging Congress to independently review the case.

Epstein’s name has continued to surface in Washington, where both Republicans and Democrats have demanded the release of thousands of pages of court and investigative documents related to his associates.

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Key Republicans were briefed earlier this week about the president’s new US-controlled company that will house the wildly popular and controversial short-video app – including how it operates the all-important recommendation algorithm.

At the closed-door briefing, administration officials told US lawmakers and staffers how a new ownership structure will remove the algorithm’s Chinese spyware and make the new TikTok safe for US users – a necessary measure to comport with a law that says the app must be banned if there’s any trace of Chinese control. 

Presindet Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that gives American investors majority control of TikTok. AFP via Getty Images

As first reported by The Post, the new TikTok algorithm will be a version of the Chinese algorithm owned by Beijing-based ByteDance that will be reformatted by Oracle, the software giant co-founded by billionaire Trump backer Larry Ellison.

Nevertheless, Congressional staffers remain skeptical whether the new algorithm can be rewritten to be completely protected from Chinese espionage given some of the wonky details of the deal disclosed during the briefing, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. The algo will still be China’s and will be leased to the new US company.

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“From a national security standpoint this isn’t so great,” said a person with direct knowledge of the briefing. “The algo will be leased by the Chinese to the US TikTok for 10 years and Oracle won’t have complete say in terms of how to change it.”

A press official for Oracle had no immediate comment as did a Trump spokesman.

As first reported by The Post, the new TikTok algorithm will be a version of the Chinese algorithm owned by Beijing-based ByteDance that will be reformatted by Oracle. REUTERS

In addition to concerns over the algorithm, some lawmakers fear the Chinese will be the biggest winner from the deal, gleaning around 50% of the new company’s profits given the 20% ownership stake ByteDance will keep in the new company, and the cost of the licensing agreement for the algorithm from ByteDance. 

In fact, the cost of the algorithm, which is being paid from TikTok revenues, has reduced the valuation of the new company from the expected $40 billion to around $16 billion.

At a closed-dorr briefing, administration officials told lawmakers and staffers how a new ownership structure will remove the algorithm’s Chinese spyware and make the new TikTok safe for US users. ZUMAPRESS.com

Oracle plans to brief Congress in the coming weeks and hearings may be held in the months ahead. US lawmakers are reluctant to buck President Trump, who is said to consider the deal key to his broader negotiations with China over trade. 

“I don’t think this is a hill anyone in the Republican Party is going to die on given how much the president wants this deal,” said a person close to the GOP China hawk wing.

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Sources note that the Congressional ban law’s interpretation of “control” – with respect to both ownership and the algorithm – rests largely with the president. Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who played a key role in hammering out the new TikTok structure, believe the US security safeguards are sufficient to comport with the law.

Trump was a TikTok hater during his first term, and attempted to ban the app in the US believing it was used by the CCP for spycraft. But he’s since had a change of heart, attributing his victory in the 2024 election partly to his campaign’s flooding TikTok with pro-MAGA content.

In April 2024, former President Biden signed bi-partisan legislation banning TikTok from US app stores if it didn’t relinquish Chinese control. Trump has issued executive orders preventing the ban from taking place until a new US TikTok deal could be cobbled together. That deal was finalized Thursday.

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In a letter sent Wednesday to Intel Chairman Frank Leary, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) wrote that he is concerned “about the security and integrity of Intel’s operations and its potential impact on US national security,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Post.

Tan replaced ousted Intel chief Pat Gelsinger in March — a year after the struggling company was awarded a whopping $8 billion in Biden-era CHIPs Act funding.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan speaking on stage in Taiwan in May. REUTERS

Cotton’s missive came after a report earlier this year claimed Tan invested at least $200 million across hundreds of Chinese firms between March 2012 and December 2024.

Some of these advanced manufacturing and semiconductor firms have been linked to the Chinese Communist Party and military, Reuters reported in April.

In his letter, Cotton questioned whether the board had required Tan to divest from these stakes before assuming the CEO role.

The senator asked whether Tan had disclosed his remaining investments to the US government, since Intel has a responsibility as a major recipient of federal funding.

He also demanded to know whether the board was aware of subpoenas targeting Cadence Design – which Tan ran from 2008 to 2021 – before it hired him.

“Intel and Mr. Tan are deeply committed to the national security of the United States and the integrity of our role in the US defense ecosystem,” an Intel spokesperson told The Post.

Intel added that it will address the matter with Cotton, who asked for responses by Aug. 15.

Sen. Tom Cotton sent a letter to Intel’s chairman with concerns about Lip-Bu Tan’s reported ties to China. ZUMAPRESS.com

“Intel is required to be a responsible steward of American taxpayer dollars and to comply with applicable security regulations,” Cotton wrote in the letter.

“Mr. Tan’s associations raise questions about Intel’s ability to fulfill these obligations.”

In 2024, Intel was awarded $8.5 billion in CHIPs funding under the Secure Enclave program, a national security initiative to make secure microchips for defense and intelligence applications.

Later that year, the government slashed that figure by more than $600 million to about $7.85 billion. Intel still ranks as one of the top companies receiving the most federal funding.

Intel ranks as one of the top companies receiving the most federal funding. Getty Images

A source familiar with the matter told Reuters in April that Tan had divested from his positions in Chinese firms.

The outlet reported at the time that Chinese databases still listed many of his investments as current.

While it is not illegal for US citizens to hold stakes in Chinese companies, there is a US Treasury list of banned Chinese firms.

Reuters reported earlier this year that Tan was not invested directly in any company on that list.

Meanwhile, Cadence Design last week agreed to plead guilty and pay more than $140 million to settle charges that it sold its chips to a Chinese military university, according to a Reuters report.

The institution was believed to be involved in simulating nuclear blasts, according to the report.

Those sales took place under Tan’s leadership at Cadence. After stepping down as CEO in 2021, Tan stayed on at Cadence as executive chairman through May 2023.

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So why would he threaten to throw gasoline on the blaze over his weird flirtation with a millionaire’s tax, something that will divide the slim GOP majorities in the House and Senate, and imperil his big beautiful budget that includes much-needed tax-cut extensions to counter the economic drag of his tariff plan? 

It’s a question I keep hearing from my GOP donor sources in the aftermath of some Trump weirdness in recent days, including pushing House Speaker Mike Johnson to include something in his budget increasing the top rate to 39.6% from 37% on individuals earning $2.5 million and above. 

The culprits of this machination, they say, are the people in the MAGA wing of the party.

Those include the Wall Streeter-turned-populist Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, trade hawk Peter Navarro and even JD Vance, the VP who was once a Silicon Valley financier but has remade himself into a champion of the working man.

(People close to Vance say he’s not involved in this debate.) 

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These are the people who are said to be hawks on trade that upended the markets and signaled economic gloom before cooler heads like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent started to cut deals. 

But don’t blame the so-called messengers on trade or taxes.

If you hate this stuff, remember it’s Trump who gives them their marching orders.

As a person close to Trump told me: “To pay for middle- and working-class tax cuts, this is reasonable populism given it only affects individuals making $2.5 million-plus.” 

I know it’s hard to feel sorry for these GOP donor fat cats, but truth be told, they’re not complaining about their own personal finances.

Yes, they make a lot of money and can afford one less nanny. 

Republican civil war 

Their worry is the potential of a gut-wrenching intraparty fight if Trump keeps pushing the tax increases on top of his tariffs that many Republicans can’t stand.

It would spark a GOP civil war on a matter that seemed to be settled science for the party for decades. 

That would be tax increases on the rich don’t help anyone, even the intended beneficiaries.

In fact, they even hurt.

Veteran investor and market maven Doug Kass did a quick, back-of-the-envelope analysis, explaining it this way: “There are 70,000 US households that make over $2.5 million annually.” The proposed increase of 2.5% translates into maybe tens of billions of extra tax revenues for the US Treasury “assuming each family makes $2.5 million.” 

Kass added that “obviously there are much higher earners, but not that many.”

Plus what’s a few billion dollars compared to an annual deficit of $2 trillion? 

That’s right.

Taxing the fat-cat class doesn’t generate enough revenue to pay for the stuff Trump intends to fund.

(No tax on tips, etc.)

It also screws with successful small businesses that file taxes as individuals.

These taxes hurt growth because rich people and small businesses will spend less.

And they make a mockery of what nearly every Republican and their vaunted supply-side punditry on cable news has preached since Ron­ald Reagan. 

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Recall what happened to George H.W. Bush, who ran on a no-new-taxes pledge, reneged on his promise, then lost to Bill Clinton in 1992. 

Here’s why this is now even more dangerous for the Republicans and Trump himself.

They need the new budget to include the tax cut because without it, the American people will face two tax increases. 

Tariffs on all imported goods that are going to get more expensive no matter what deals are cut is the first tax increase. 

Then throw in the expiration of the Trump 1 tax cuts if the GOP is distracted by a messy civil war over its Trump-forced inclusion of the millionaire’s tax.

That’s when you get your double-tax whammy. 

Based on everything I’m hearing from my sources in DC, such division is exactly what will happen since so many GOP lawmakers including most of the Senate Republicans just won’t vote for a budget that includes this stuff. 

Then the fun begins for the Dems, as many are now predicting.

The GOP could lose its majorities in the midterms — and a Dem majority in the House will mean Trump gets impeached again. 

The Trump policies that involve cultural and security issues will be placed on the back burner; you could see the return of DEI, maybe open borders.

Plus, nothing gets done, while a Republican president gets blamed for the economic hit that two tax increases will likely create. 

A DeSantis 2nd act? 

President JD Vance?

Not a prayer.

The Trump-Vance coalition just squeaked by the bumbling Kamala Harris, who was left with the noxious economic baggage of Joe Biden to defend, namely inflated prices and low ­wages for average Americans. 

The GOP better hope for a return of Ron DeSantis, who if you haven’t noticed, has been quiet through all the nonsense of tariffs and taxes, or Gavin Newsom might be our next president. 

The good news: It seems unlikely at press time if Speaker Johnson will include the millionaire’s tax in the House budget proposal; it’s not in the early draft of his “big beautiful bill.” 

The bad news: What I just outlined is something that Trump apparently doesn’t appreciate. Even after pushback from allies like Ted Cruz, he posted on Truth Social on Friday the following mess of contradictions about the tax hike: “In any event, Republicans should probably not do it, but I’m OK if they do!!!” 

Talk about leadership!

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The California Air Resources Board (CARB) — which consists of board members appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democrat-controlled legislature — is scheduled to vote just days after the election on a new proposal that would lower carbon emissions faster, but increase the cost of petroleum refineries.

CARB has the authority to impose regulations without legislative oversight.

Twenty-five Republicans are sounding the alarm and urging the board to delay the vote after an independent finding showed it could increase the cost at the pump per gallon by 47 cents.

“It’s a big, big deal, and so people deserve to know and have full transparency by these boards, what it is that they’re doing and the impact that it will have on their daily life,” state Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, R-Yucaipa, told Fox News Digital in an interview.

“So, we talk about the cost of living in California. We talk about the top concerns in California is the cost of living, and when it comes to the impact of fuels, this would be a direct ripple effect on increasing the cost of living in California. People need a break.”

In a letter to CARB chair Liane Randolph, Ochoa Bogh and Assemblymember Greg Wallis noted that Californians currently pay $1.50 more per gallon than the national average, and CARB’s proposed changes could add 65 to 85 cents next year, potentially reaching $1.50 by 2035.

Californians may see another tax hike after they are already paying the highest tax prices in the U.S. AFP via Getty Images

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) — which consists of board members appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, plan to vote on a new proposal that would lower carbon emissions faster, but increase the cost of petroleum refineries. Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

CARB has the power to put those regulations into effect without legislative oversight, which has GOP lawmakers sounding the alarm and wanting the board to delay the vote. REUTERS

“What we’re asking is that before you take a vote on new standards that are going to obviously have an impact on fuel prices, give us full disclosure as to what exactly it is that you’re imposing and what the financial impact will be on Californians,” Ochoa Bogh said.

CARB initially estimated a 47-cent-per-gallon increase in gas prices for public comment, but retracted the estimate after receiving massive backlash.

The CARB report foresaw gasoline prices increasing due to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard reforms that were created in 2007, likely rising by 47 cents next year and 52 cents by 2026.

Diesel prices could climb by 59 cents this year and 66 cents in two years. Long-term projections suggest gasoline could surge by $1.15 and diesel by $1.50 per gallon from 2031 to 2046, with jet fuel increasing by $1.21.

The air board staff later called the gas price hike projections “incomplete” in a December report, focusing instead on the cost savings to drivers as more people transition to electric vehicles.

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