Today in Politics, Bulletin 267. 12/9/25
… Trump agreed to sell China highly-advanced chip tech so his oligarch friends can make big bucks while selling out US national security and competitiveness in AI: “I have informed President Xi that the US will allow NVIDIA to ship its H200 products to approved customers in China, and other Countries, under conditions that allow for continued strong National Security. President Xi responded positively! 25% will be paid to the USA.”
… House Select Committee on China, Chaired by Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), issued a statement opposing the move: “Right now, China is far behind the US 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.”
… “Publicly available analysis indicates that the H200 provides 32% more processing power and 50% more memory bandwidth than China’s best chip. The CCP will use these highly advanced chips to strengthen its military capabilities and totalitarian surveillance. 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. That is China’s playbook and it is using it in every critical industry.”
… Chris McGuire, head of China policy for Council on Foreign Relations: “This is a sea change in US policy, and a significant strategic mistake. If the US sells AI chips to China that are 18 months behind the frontier, it negates the biggest US advantage over China in AI. Here are 4 reasons that this new policy helps China much more than it helps the US:
No Chinese AI chip firm poses a strategic threat to Nvidia or any other US firm. China does not plan to make a chip better than the H200 until Q4 2027 at the earliest. It also is severely constrained in the number of lower-quality chips it can make. And China will continue to do everything in its power to reduce its dependency on US AI chips, even while it retains access to US chips.
Because the US lead over China in AI chips is rapidly increasing, a fixed 18 month delay will be even more beneficial to China in the coming months and years. It means the US could start to sell Blackwell chips to China as soon as the middle of next year - despite the fact that no Chinese firm has plans to make a chip as good as the GB200 any time this decade. And Rubin chips - which are projected to be 28x (!) better than US export control thresholds later in Trump’s term.
Exporting large numbers of AI chips to China will provide an enormous increase to China’s aggregate AI compute capabilities; the quantity of chips that are approved will be key. Large quantity exports will also allow China to compete with US firms in AI infrastructure construction globally - including with “good enough” AI data centers that use previous-generation technology but are subsidized by the Chinese government and cheaper than US offerings.
Right now China cannot offer any product that can compete globally with US data centers. That is about to change. We got nothing in exchange for this. This is a massive concession to China, reversing the most significant US technology protection policy vis-a-vis China that has ever been implemented. But the way reporting frames it, this is a unilateral US concession. If the tables were turned, China would not give the US H200s - and if they did, they certainly wouldn’t give it to us for free.”
… Phil Gordon with Brookings Institution: “We have spent years insisting our allies—Japan, Netherlands, Taiwan, Gulf countries, etc—forego profits and endure friction with China for what we insisted were critical national security reasons. Now we are sending the message that the floodgates can open.”
… US-China policy expert Bob Davis: “A combination of Nvidia lobbying from the outside and David Saks from the inside has reversed the export control strategy of Trump’s first admin and the Biden admin.”
… Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA): “Trump is making China great again by selling advanced AI chips to China and then forcing Nvidia into a revenue sharing agreement, which by the way is very socialist. What’s next, selling China the F-35 and asking Lockheed to give 25% of the profits to you?
… Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI): “Why the hell is the President of the US willing to sell some of our best chips to China? These chips are our advantage and Trump is just cashing in like he’s flipping a condo. This is one of the most consequential things he’s done. Terrible decision for America.”
… WaPo’s Josh Rogin: “Lenin: ‘The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.’ Xi to Trump: ‘Sell us your advanced AI chips and we will kick you back 25%’. Trump: “Deal!”
… Rush Doshi, Biden Admin’s director of China Policy: “Looks like we’re about to sell H200s to China. This is 6 times more powerful than the H20, which is the best chip we sell them. This is a big deal. Essentially a reversal of the US export control policy on advanced chips. Possibly decisive in the AI race. Compute is our main advantage — China has more power, engineers, and the entire edge layer — so by giving this up we increase the odds the world runs on Chinese AI.”
… Former US Ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns: “Selling H200 chips to China is a major mistake by Trump. We must keep advanced technology out of the hands of the PLA in its competition with our military. Weak and short-sighted.”
… NBC: Shortly before this was announced, DOJ unsealed a guilty plea as part of ‘Operation Gatekeeper’ detailing efforts by several businessman to traffic these chips to locations in China. DOJ described the H100 and H200 in a statement: “They among the most advanced GPUs ever developed, and their export to China is strictly prohibited. These chips are the building blocks of AI superiority and are integral to modern military applications. The country that controls these chips will control AI technology; the country that controls AI technology will control the future.”
… Karoline Leavitt went on Newsmax to lie about the latest farm bailout: “President Trump convinced President Xi to continue purchasing again American soybeans, which is something China wasn’t doing under the last admin because they had no respect for President Biden or the country at the time.”
… China was the single largest export market for American soybean farmers in 2024. They bought 27 million metric tons of soybeans. They stopped buying in 2025 when Trump started his trade war and hit them with tariffs. They will buy far less this year than they did in 2024. Those are basic, simple facts. Leavitt is a habitual liar, like her boss.
… Even Fox’s chief political analyst Brit Hume wasn’t buying Trump’s propaganda on this: “No doubt the tariffs are a factor in this. There’s no getting around that. It’s not a bridge loan. This is a subsidy. A $12 billion govt program to bail out farmers hurt by his other program, the tariffs.”
… Caleb Ragland, president of the American Soybean Association, on CNN: “This is a band-aid on an open wound. What we truly need are market-based solutions that are in place long-term. Without demand, we are unable to receive a price that is economically sustainable for our crop. That’s what American soybeans farmers want - not being dependent on a program to keep us from bleeding to death.”
… Ragland: “I’ve been farming 21 years. This is by far the most serious economic situation that I have experienced.”
… Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins told NewsNation that Trump’s trade deals are going to solve all the problems for farmers. Next year: “These deals are real. No one in the history of our country has ever been able to effectuate deals like this. But we won’t see the effect until next year.”
… Good times are always right around the corner.
… Q - “There was a similar bailout for farmers during the first Trump admin. That time the top 1% of farmers got like 25% of the funds. What are you doing to make sure that doesn’t happen this time? Rollins: Based on all these different formulas that all the really smart people have put together that really trend toward supporting the smaller farmer.”
… I’m a bit skeptical of this claim.
… Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL): “For the record, the taxpayer-funded emergency money Trump is pulling from is meant to help farmers during natural disasters. Not Trump-made disasters. Trump is using your taxpayer dollars to fix a mess he created after his tariffs nearly put so many farmers out of business. And meanwhile, his tariffs are still inflating your grocery bills. The American people deserve better.”
… Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO) was asked how he would grade the economy after Trump said he would give it an A+: “Look, I’m using the same template that our president is using, and that is the potential.”
… A+ potential. Got it. I should’ve used that in 8th grade for some of my tests. I realize this isn’t very good, but it has real A+ potential!
… Q - “Is that what small business owners in Missouri are telling you, that this is an A+ economy for them? Alford: Look, our small business owners, I get that they have been hurt somewhat by some of these tariffs, but the business owners I talk to are seeing a resurgence in people coming out to shop.”
… Alford then tried to blame Biden: Q - “That’s not what farmers are telling you. One farmer at a town hall told you that tariffs drove up prices of fertilizer. Alford: It was Joe Biden that drove up the price. Q - That’s not what the farmer told you. Alford: Well, that’s what I’m telling you. Q - Sir, excuse me. Are you listening to your constituents?”
… House Oversight Chair James Comer on why Republicans have been against releasing the Epstein files: “One of the things Trump has always been concerned about is there are people that have maybe been listed by the govt as someone who associated with Epstein, they may have attended a party with Epstein or invited Epstein to a party at their house. The president was concerned the media or public would assume that person had done terrible things, that they were guilty by association.”
… NBC’s Melanie Zanona: “House Republicans are trying to coalesce around a health care plan. There’s gonna be a big meeting at 3pm today with leaders, committee chairs and the doctor’s caucus to try to nail down a proposal. The view among leadership is they need to vote on *something*.. or else their hand could be forced by a discharge petition. Also want to inoculate themselves from Dem attacks.”
… Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ): “The day the most American buy their plan on the ACA is Dec 15th. (Last day) That gives them coverage starting Jan 1st. Any changes or fixes after that will be bring chaos. So good luck getting a brand new plan done by… Monday. Hope the 41-day vacation pedo protector Mike Johnson put the House in was worth losing the 2026 elections.”
… Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) to CNN: “I just don’t know how Republicans would explain that to 24 million Americans whose premiums are gonna double. We need to think about the human cost of this. And Republicans need to offer an alternative solution. Health insurance is already too expensive and the idea that it would go up by 50 or 100 or 150%? I’m not willing to sit back and roll the dice on that, so we need to do something.”
… Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) on MS NOW: “This is so much deeper than the politics. What does it say about the moral condition of this Congress that the thing that has them all tied up in knots is a very simple question: Should people’s health insurance premiums go up double or triple? This is a policy choice - it’s such a straightforward moral question.”
… Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) on Fox: Q - “What do you say to Americans who say to Republicans, where’s your healthcare plan? If they’re not getting their subsidy, what’s option B? McCormick: In the short term, we’re still wrestling with how to deal with this.”
… Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) was asked on Newsmax when the Republican plan to replace the ACA will be ready: “It’s gonna take us a while to figure out the right way to do it.”
… Two weeks.
… WSJ on why Trump is now changing his tune on releasing the video of the second strike on the survivors of the boat off Venezuela: “Hegseth raised concerns with Trump last week that tactics and intelligence methods might be compromised if the video is released. Trump agreed and didn’t want the Pentagon to buckle under pressure from Democrats and press reports to disclose details of the operation.”
… Every other strike video they released right away since they are MAGA’s new favorite porn. But for some reason this one can’t be released because it might compromise intelligence gathering. Right.
… House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries held a press conference today demanding the release of the full video: “If Hegseth and the Trump admin think their actions are justifiable, why are they hiding it from the American people?”
… Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) on CNN: “It’s amazing how quickly this admin releases videos that they do what the public to see, and how many excuses they’ll come up with for videos they don’t want the public to see. The American public deserves to see what’s happening.”
… CNN’s Manu Raju spoke to 3 Republican senators today who said the video of the second strike on the boat off Venezuela should be released:
Josh Hawley: “I would just say to him, like, ‘Listen, if there’s a way to release the video’ - which I have not seen - but if there’s a way to release that, that does not compromise our intelligence gathering, I would urge them to do it.”
Lindsey Graham: “I’m okay with it being released, and I’m okay with what happened.”
Thom Tillis: “We’ve got to get the Epstein files released. We got to get any videos that do not in any way compromise mission integrity down there. Just get the stuff out there.”
… Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Fox when asked about the strikes and the prospect of the US military going into Venezuela: “I’m kind of old-fashioned, I like to obey this thing called the Constitution. The Constitution says that war only occurs when it is declared by Congress. The president doesn’t have the power to take the country to war.”
… CBS: “Congress is aiming to withhold part of Pete Hegseth’s travel budget until the Pentagon hands over footage of strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats near Venezuela. The provision was tucked into a compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act.”
… Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) to Punchbowl on Republicans removing funding for IVF treatments for military families from the NDAA: “It was a clash within the Republican conference that they could not resolve. They chose not to have that fight.”
… The objections have nothing to do with funding. It is all about religion.
… NOTUS: “Republicans loudly declared in 2024 they backed access to in vitro fertilization, even changing their party’s platform to highlight their support. But little has been done to actually deliver on those campaign promises.”
… Frank Pavone, Director of Priests for Life: “When you have a significant portion of the public having moral concerns about this, let’s be sensitive to that. This victory shows us a sensitivity to that.”
… Kristi Hamrick with Students for Life of America: “More pre-born lives are lost in IVF than abortion. IVF is not an industry that deserves blanket support and funding. We can do better.”
… Advancing American Freedom, a group led by Mike Pence: “Many pro-life Americans are opposed to IVF because the standard process destroys human embryos.”
Reminder that there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I do my podcast Uncovered where we do a deep-dive into the top stories of the week. We also have our special Ask the Editor show for our subscribers where we choose 5 of your questions to answer and discuss. Please submit your questions or any topic you would like me to comment more on in the replies to this Bulletin.
If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.
… Trump in a new interview with Politico: Q - “You pardoned the former president of Honduras even though he was convicted in a massive international drug trafficking scheme. How is that zero tolerance on drug trafficking? Trump: Well I don’t know him and I know very little about him other than people said it was like an Obama-Biden type set up where he was set up.”
… Q - “Should Hegseth testify under oath about the second strike on the alleged drug boat? Trump: I don’t care if he does. I don’t care. Q - Do you think he should? Trump: I don’t care. I would say do it if you want.”
… CNN unearthed clips of Pete Hegseth criticizing Trump: “The 2016 comments from Hegseth came at a moment when then-candidate Trump was drawing widespread criticism for proposals that military lawyers and commanders said would violate the laws of war, including killing the families of terrorists and reviving banned forms of