President Donald Trump said members of his Cabinet would continue discussions with Lip-Bu Tan in the coming days after meeting with the Intel Corp. chief executive officer at the White House on Monday.
“The meeting was a very interesting one,” Trump said in a social media post. “His success and rise is an amazing story. Mr. Tan and my Cabinet members are going to spend time together, and bring suggestions to me during the next week.” Intel didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Tan’s meeting with Trump.
The warm remarks were a stark reversal from just four days earlier, when Trump called for Tan’s resignation and accused him of having conflicts of interest.
Trump last week wrote in a post on Truth Social that Tan should step down as chief of the American chipmaker, describing him as “highly CONFLICTED.”
The post came after Republican Senator Tom Cotton asked the chairman of Intel’s board to answer questions about Tan’s ties to China, including investments in the country’s semiconductor companies and others with connections to its military.
Tan has said he has the full backing of the company’s board and had reached out to the White House to clear up what he called “misinformation” about his track record.
The chipmaker’s shares jumped more than 2% in extended trading following Trump’s post on Monday. The stock declined 3.1% on Aug. 7, the day of the president’s initial remarks.