The same Beltway creatures who had no problems with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s illegal sanctions against geopolitical targets, or his lying about his close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, are now targeting him over the Nvidia scandal. The chance to bash China is irresistible for hypocrites on both sides of the aisle. At issue is Lutnick’s role in keeping Singaporean cloud company Megaspeed off the list of proscribed companies. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has admitted to having an affair with Megaspeed executive Alice Huang (no relation, other than sexual), who is accused of espionage on behalf of China.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was interviewed on Nov. 12 on CNBC and threw Lutnick under the bus, saying, “Treasury, War, USTR [U.S. Trade Representative] and State… were in favor of putting Megaspeed on the entity list for months. But Commerce has the pen. Commerce BIS [Bureau of Industry and Security] has the pen, and you will have to ask them about their internal processes.”

One obvious question about this whole scandal is, why now? It seems designed to blow up U.S.-China relations with the Nov. 18-19 APEC summit in China approaching, and the planned tripartite meeting there between presidents Trump, Xi, and Putin. At yesterday’s Chinese Foreign Ministry press briefing, BBC asked: