A corruption scandal over leaked Nvidia chips to China is now good news for nobody in Washington, as top Trump officials race to blame each other before Congress changes hands.

• Commerce Secretary Lutnick is being set up as the fall guy for letting advanced Nvidia chips leak to China, while Treasury Secretary Bessent and others publicly throw him under the bus.
• Lutnick's family ties make it messier: his sons took over his investment firm and reportedly made huge bets tied to Intel and shorted U.S. government bonds right before Trump's tariff announcement, raising conflict-of-interest questions.
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is also under pressure, with lawmakers demanding he testify before Thanksgiving; Nvidia stock has dropped sharply and lost close to a trillion dollars in value since the story broke.
• There are rumors (denied) that top economic adviser Kevin Hassett is leaving the White House, seen as another sign officials are distancing themselves before investigations ramp up.
• Separately, Treasury's Bessent is also warning that Chinese AI models lacking safety limits are dangerous, pointing to a mass grocery-store refrigerator outage in France as an example of the risk.

Outlook: Expect more officials to publicly blame each other in the coming weeks, with pressure building for hearings and possible departures before a new Congress takes office and investigations intensify.