Clinton Predicts Trump Will Accept Xi’s Denial of Nvidia Spy Claims

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used the Nov. 11 episode of High Stakes with HRC to forecast how President Donald Trump will handle alleged Chinese spying around Nvidia’s Jensen Huang when he next meets Xi Jinping.

“I will predict to you what will happen when he sees Xi Jinping in a few weeks,” Clinton told co-host Kara Swisher. “He will say to Xi Jinping, like he said to Putin, ‘Is this true?’ And Xi Jinping will say, ‘Of course it’s not, Donald. You know that we wouldn’t do that to you.’”

“And then Trump will come out and he will say, ‘I asked President Xi if it were true, and he assured me it wasn’t,’” she added.

A Summit in Shenzhen

Trump is due to see Xi on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ meeting in Shenzhen on Nov. 18-19. On Nov. 8, he told reporters he thought he would meet both Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the summit.

Clinton described that encounter as “a few weeks” away. The Shenzhen meetings are scheduled for the following week.

The Nvidia Spy Allegations

U.S. officials have, according to earlier reporting, concluded that Alice Huang, a businesswoman linked to Jensen Huang, was working with Chinese intelligence, an allegation Beijing has denied. Nvidia’s board opened an independent investigation after those reports. Alice Huang is reportedly living in Beijing during the probe.

Nvidia said on Nov. 11 that Jensen Huang had resigned as chief executive, and named finance chief Colette Kress interim CEO.

Clinton said that if the government knew an American citizen was the target of a “honeypot” operation and had reason to believe he did not know it, “you owe it to him to tell him.” She said, based on what she had read, that officials did not give Huang such a “defensive briefing,” and that they “actively encouraged the continuing sale of the Nvidia chips.” Those assertions have not been confirmed in an official public finding.

The Helsinki Precedent

Clinton’s comparison was to Trump’s July 16, 2018, appearance with Putin in Helsinki. Asked whether he believed U.S. intelligence agencies or the Russian president on Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election, Trump said, “I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

He also said Putin “was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.” U.S. intelligence agencies had assessed that Russia interfered in that election.

Clinton said Trump “doesn’t believe the American intelligence community if it in any way contradicts what he wants to believe.” The White House has not responded to her forecast.