Fact Check: Did Trump name an X user as Jensen Huang's successor?
WASHINGTON, DC: As Jensen Huang steps down as the CEO and president of Nvidia over a cheating scandal involving an alleged Chinese spy, a rumor surfaced on social media platforms claiming that President Donald Trump named an X user as a successor to Huang. The claim has sparked speculation, with users calling for verification of the rumor.
Claim: Donald Trump names an X user as Nvidia CEO
The rumor surfaced on X, claiming to show a post by the president on his official Truth Social handles.
The alleged post, dated November 12, read, “NOW THAT Nvidia CEO JENSEN HUANG, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place, greg16676935420 of X. A Legend replaces a Legend! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
The post has garnered hundreds of thousands of views as of this writing, garnering conflicting reactions from online users. Many believe it is an authentic post by Trump, while a few others dismiss it as fake and call for a fact-check.
Fact Check: The claim originated as a meme
However, the claim is false, as the screenshot is fabricated and does not appear on any of the president’s official social media handles.
A search of Trump’s Truth Social handle as well as the commentary account on X, which archives all his posts, yielded no results that match the wording in the screenshot.
A search on Google to check if he made the post and then deleted it yielded no credible results, which, if true, would have been widely covered by credible news outlets.
The search revealed that the fabricated post matched the wording in Trump recent post, which stated, “NOW THAT Nvidia CEO JENSEN HUANG, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place - TIM COOK of Apple. A Legend replaces a Legend! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Hence, the claim was intended as a meme made for the sake of engagement, and the accounts have made similar posts.
Jensen Huang steps down as Nvidia CEO
The screenshot surfaced after Huang stepped down as the Nvidia president, CEO, and board member on November 12 with immediate effect, ending his 33-year journey with the company he helped establish.
The development came after his reported association with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman suspected by US intelligence officials of having connections to Beijing and of helping Chinese interests acquire advanced Nvidia chips despite restrictions imposed by Washington on semiconductor exports.
