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For Immediate Release
July, 23 2025, 06:09pm EDT
Contact:
Jeremy Funk, press@accountable.us
Watchdog: Amid 'AI Summit', Commerce Sec. Lutnick's Family Business Conveniently Holds $1.1B Stake in AI Chip Companies Benefiting From Lax New Administration Trade Agreement
President Trump's ‘AI Summit’ today comes on the heels of major AI industry news last week that Nvidia—which controls over 90% of the AI chip market—celebrated assurances from the Trump administration that it could resume sales of its H20 AI chip in China, after the administration placed export controls on the chip over national security concerns. Meanwhile, semiconductor company AMD also reported that the Commerce Department said its MI308 chip export license was “moving forward.” The administration’s softer stance was also no doubt cause for celebration for the family of Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, which holds a massive financial stake in both Nvidia and AMD.
A new analysis from government watchdog Accountable.US finds that Lutnick’s family business empire, Cantor Fitzgerald, reported over $886 million in Nvidia positions in Q1 2025, while Lutnick played a prominent role in lifting the administration’s trade restrictions -- even arranging a meeting between Trump and Nvidia’s CEO. Additionally, Lutnick’s family business reported positions of over $230 million in AMD, which said Lutnick’s Commerce Dept. would likely lift China trade restrictions on one of its own advanced chips.
Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk: “Trump’s billionaire Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick once again played a central role in administration trade policy that just so happened to set up his family business for a massive pay day. Alarmingly, it has become the norm for the President and his cabinet to use their positions of power to drive more money into their own pockets while defending Trump’s brutal budget cuts, robbing millions of working Americans and seniors of basic health care and food security.”
The Trump Commerce Department’s 180 on Chinese export controls for AI is just the latest case of the heavily conflicted Secretary Lutnick playing a central role in Trump administration policy that coincidentally benefits his family business empire. In March, Lutnick told a national TV audience to buy Tesla stock, as his family business reportedly held approximately $840 million in the company. In May, Lutnick’s family increased its stake in the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, to a total of $1.3 billion, as Lutnick helped establish President Trump’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
By temporarily divesting from Cantor Fitzgerald while he serves the Trump White House, Secretary Lutnick would have the public believe that the arrangement grants him plausible deniability regarding how administration policy could benefit his family's business empire. Beyond the implausibility of Lutnick never comparing notes with his 20-something-year-old sons in ‘control’ of the company, “nearly two dozen current and former employees and associates” of Lutnick’s have stated that the billionaire’s “grip on his various businesses is bolted tight.”
Accountable.US is a nonpartisan watchdog that exposes corruption in public life and holds government officials and corporate special interests accountable by bringing their influence and misconduct to light. In doing so, we make way for policies that advance the interests of all Americans, not just the rich and powerful.
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Wanted War Criminal and 'Genocide Architect' Netanyahu Joins Trump Board of Peace
"For Palestinians, the appointment of Benjamin Netanyahu to the 'Board of Peace' is not just shocking but deeply offensive—he is seen by many as the mastermind of the genocide."
Jan 21, 2026
With Palestinians in Gaza still under assault, searching the rubble for loved ones, and burying those newly killed by Israel's military, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed Wednesday to join US President Donald Trump's so-called "Board of Peace," a move critics said further discredits a project that has widely been seen as farcical and potentially dangerous from the start.
The office of the Israeli prime minister, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, said in a statement that Netanyahu "accepts the invitation of US President Donald Trump and will become a member of the Board of Peace, which is to be comprised of world leaders."
Trump first announced plans for the Board of Peace last year, and the United Nations Security Council officially welcomed the body's creation in a resolution passed in November—even as critics warned the board could undermine the UN.
The Security Council resolution endorsed the board as a "transitional administration with international legal personality that will set the framework, and coordinate funding for, the redevelopment of Gaza," but its actual scope and ambition—as laid out by the Trump administration—appears much broader.
"Trump would serve as the board’s chair and US representative, overseeing a group of countries that he nominates for three-year terms," the International Crisis Group explained. "At least 60 countries, including the Security Council’s other permanent members, have received an invitation to join. Any member could buy a permanent seat in exchange for a $1 billion investment."
Egypt, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, the United Arab Emirates, Belarus, Morocco, and Hungary are among the other nations that have accepted Trump's invitation to join the board.
But several US allies—including France, Norway, and Sweden—have rejected the US president's invite. French officials reportedly expressed concern that the board's charter extends beyond pursuing a resolution in the Gaza Strip and "raises major questions, particularly regarding respect for the principles and structure of the United Nations, which under no circumstances can be called into question."
"How can someone accused of these crimes be branded a peacemaker? The population is still burying its dead—this is impunity dressed up as diplomacy."
Observers were quick to denounce the addition of Netanyahu to a body whose purported aim is peace.
"The genocide architect and International Criminal Court fugitive who has been planning and promising the depopulation of Gaza is now officially part of the 'Board of Peace,'" wrote political scientist Nicola Perugini.
Adil Haque, a law professor at Rutgers University, called Netanyahu's membership "the worst-case scenario when the UN Security Council authorized this travesty."
"Sickening," Haque added.
News of Netanyahu's decision to join Trump's Board of Peace came as Israel launched deadly new attacks on Gaza. Reuters reported that "Israeli fire killed 11 Palestinians, including two boys and three journalists, in Gaza on Wednesday, local medics said."
Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Gaza City, wrote Wednesday that "for Palestinians, the appointment of Benjamin Netanyahu to the 'Board of Peace' is not just shocking but deeply offensive—he is seen by many as the mastermind of the genocide."
"He is viewed as responsible for mass killings, displacement, and the destruction of civilian life," Abu Azzoum added. "From that perspective, how can someone accused of these crimes be branded a peacemaker? The population is still burying its dead—this is impunity dressed up as diplomacy."
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'No One Else Has It,' Claims Trump When Asked About 'Secret Sonic Weapon' Used in Venezuela
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President Donald Trump, a documented liar, appeared to confirm in a televised interview that aired Tuesday night that the US military deployed a "secret sonic weapon" against Venezuelan and Cuban soldiers during the Jan. 3 raid in Caracas that killed scores of people, including civilians.
Asked about the existence or use of such a "sonic weapon" by NewsNation's Katie Pavlich—and whether Americans should be concerned about it—Trump responded, "No one else has it. We have weapons that no one knows about. It's probably better not to talk about it, but we have amazing weapons. It was an amazing attack."
Question: There was sonic weapon that took out many of the Cuban bodyguards that were used…Is that something Americans should be afraid of?
Trump: It’s something I don’t wanna—nobody else has it. pic.twitter.com/hb0VP6yoXD
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 21, 2026
This is not the first time the White House has hinted at the idea that such a weapon was used in the assault on Venezuela—an operation which resulted in the unlawful kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
On Jan. 10, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared an English-language translation of a purported interview with a Venezuelan "security guard loyal to Maduro," who described the night of the assault by US forces.
In the interview, the veracity of which cannot be independently verified and reeked to some as a clear example of US-generated propaganda or counterintelligence, the guard described "a massacre" by US personnel who, he said, "launched something—I don't know how to describe it... it was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside. We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move."
It's no secret that the US military has been developing sonic weapons, which can use sound waves or focused microwaves to cause pain or discomfort to those targeted. Such "directed energy weapons" have been referred to simply as "pain rays," but go by various names, depending on the technology being used.
According to a detailed look at the US military's development and use of such weapons and the speculation surrounding the Venezuela assault, TWZ's Joseph Trevithick reports that it "should be reiterated that there is currently no evidence to substantiate the claim that the US military used a 'sonic weapon' during Operation Absolute Resolve. At the same time, this is hardly the first time American forces are alleged to have employed mysterious, less-than-lethal, and/or non-kinetic capabilities."
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US Union Leader Tells Davos Elites 'You're Gonna Have a Revolution' If AI Wipes Out Jobs
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Jan 21, 2026
The leader of the AFL-CIO, the largest union federation in the United States, told elites and others gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday that rapid advances in artificial intelligence risk turbocharging the worst inequities of the existing economic order, displacing workers en masse while enriching those at the very top.
Liz Shuler, the AFL-CIO's president, said during a panel discussion that if the billionaires and corporate titans currently directing AI developments are "looking to just deskill, dehumanize, replace workers" and "put people out on the street with no path forward—then absolutely you’re gonna have a revolution."
The economy in the US and around the world "isn't working for working people now," Shuler noted, citing unprecedented levels of inequality, workers being forced to take on multiple jobs to make ends meet, and widespread economic instability.
“Now, put AI on top of that," she continued. "The insecurity that we’re all experiencing—the fact that people are waking up and some new technology is landing on them in their jobs, without training, without them having a say. Of course they’re going to be anxious, of course they're going to be feeling insecure about what the future holds."
“I think we really need to stop, and say: ‘Who are we doing this for, what are the results we want, and how we get there?’" said Shuler. "We get there by including workers in the process."
The International Monetary Fund has estimated that roughly 40% of global employment is "exposed to AI." In advanced economies, according to the analysis, around 60% of jobs could be impacted by AI, either positively or negatively—with some jobs expected to disappear entirely.
Multinational corporate behemoths such as Amazon are actively planning to replace many of their workers with robots, efforts that have sparked the kinds of dire warnings that Shuler expressed at Davos, where AI is a centerpiece of this year's gathering.
In a letter to Amazon's billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos, late last year, US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) asked, "Are you going to simply dump these workers out on the street, or will you treat them with the dignity they deserve?"
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