Trump says Huang called him before Nvidia resignation: 'He's going through hell'

President Donald Trump said he spoke with Jensen Huang on Wednesday, one day before the Nvidia CEO resigned, and described the executive as a man in crisis over the fallout from an affair scandal that now includes a board-led counterintelligence inquiry.

"I spoke to him yesterday. He's going through hell. What he feels most badly about is his wife and family," Trump said in a White House interview with Stephen A. Smith. "That's what he told me."

What happened before the resignation?

Huang resigned on Thursday. The departure followed a rapid sequence of disclosures that began the prior Sunday, when Huang admitted in a memo to staff that he had been "unfaithful" and the Nvidia board announced it was investigating whether he had been the target of a foreign intelligence operation.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Huang had engaged in a second affair, this one with an Nvidia executive who reported directly to him, Kimberly Powell. After the resignation, a Reuters report alleged a third affair, with another unnamed Nvidia employee. For HR and compliance leaders, the pattern raises familiar questions: how boards assess reporting-relationship conflicts at the top, and how quickly they can act once media reporting overtakes internal processes.

Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment.

How often did the president intervene?

Trump's contacts with Huang were more extensive than a single call. On Monday, the president said he had spoken with Huang to check on him and reported that Huang claimed ignorance of any espionage angle. "He said he did not know the person he had an affair with was a spy," according to Trump, who added: "And I really believe him."

The Times reported that Trump also called Huang on Tuesday and encouraged him to fight to keep the chief executive role. Two presidential conversations in two days, followed by resignation, complicate any effort to frame the exit as a purely internal governance decision.

That a sitting president engaged repeatedly with a CEO facing a counterintelligence review is unusual, and the White House offered no explanation of why the calls occurred.

Who runs Nvidia now?

Colette Kress, Nvidia's chief financial officer, was named interim CEO on Thursday while the board searches for a permanent replacement. Trump used the Smith interview to reiterate his view that Tim Cook, the former CEO of Apple, should succeed Huang. That endorsement carries no formal weight in the boardroom, but public presidential pressure on a succession process is a variable most boards never have to price in.

The interim appointment leaves HR and leadership teams at Nvidia managing a transition layered over an active internal investigation, with the scope of that investigation still undefined in public statements.

Did Trump think Huang should resign?

Trump declined to give a flat answer. When Smith asked whether Huang should have stepped down, Trump conditioned his response on the unresolved espionage question at the center of the board's inquiry. "If the woman was a spy, yes. If the woman was not a spy, perhaps it would be different," he said.

Trump also praised Huang and his work at Nvidia during the interview.

The conditional framing mirrors the compliance stakes. If US officials' suspicion, as reported by the Times, proves correct, the matter shifts from personal conduct to national security exposure; if not, the board's calculus on discipline and disclosure looks very different.

What remains unanswered?

The board has not said when its investigation will conclude, what its mandate covers, or whether the two additional alleged relationships fall within its scope. Powell has not publicly responded to the Times report, and Nvidia has named no permanent chief executive.

Until the board reports, employers watching the case are left with an incomplete record and a resignation whose proximate cause remains contested.