Last week, the CEO of Intel, one of America's most storied tech companies, was asked to resign.
But it wasn't Intel's board calling for him to step down.
Intel has now found itself in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump.
After the president called for the company's CEO, Liputan, to resign,
calling him, quote, highly conflicted due to his ties to Chinese firms.
Lipu Tan, Intel's CEO, has only been in the job for about five months.
The focus on him seems to have started last week.
That's when Republican Senator Tom Cotton, a longtime China hawk,
posted a letter on X. It was addressed to Intel's board.
He sent a letter to Intel saying, hey, I have some questions about your CEO.
That's our colleague Stu Wu.
Specifically, this guy runs America's most prominent chip company,
but he seems to have a lot of ties to the most important chip companies in China.
And we want to know, have you asked him about that?
Have you looked into this?
Trump's Truth Social post calling for Tan's resignation followed just a day later.
How unusual is that?
The president kind of coming out and saying, hey, I think the CEO of this company should step down.
My colleagues and I have been talking to some business professors,
and they're saying it's unprecedented in modern U.S. presidency for the president to weigh in on the CEO of a private American corporation.