Following the departure of Pat Gelsinger in December 2024, Intel appointed a new CEO in Lip-Bu Tan. Tan took on the mantle in March 2025, but barely half a year into his new position, Trump called for his firing.

While presidents have sometimes expressed their outrage about the behaviour of a corporate sector, Trump’s assault has no modern precedent. The source of the president’s ire (and that of Tom Cotton, Republican chair of the Senate intelligence committee),