Warren, Van Hollen, Kim, and Slotkin Push for Vote on Senate Floor to Condemn Trump Chip Sales to UAE and Call for Reversal of Deal

Warren, Van Hollen, Kim, and Slotkin Push for Vote on Senate Floor to Condemn Trump Chip Sales to UAE and Call for Reversal of Deal

"Trump is profiting off the Presidency while American families worry about their jobs, the rising cost of groceries, and how to pay their bills"

"Congress needs to grow a spine. We cannot allow American national security to be sold to the highest bidder"

Watch speech here (YouTube)

Washington, DC - Today on the Senate floor, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, urged her Senate colleagues to condemn and call for the reversal of President Donald Trump's decision to allow the export of advanced AI chips to the United Arab Emirates. Warren introduced the resolution with Senators Chris Van Hollen, Andy Kim and Elissa Slotkin following new reporting revealing that representatives of the UAE's "Spy Sheikh" agreed to buy a 49% stake in Trump's crypto company for half a billion dollars four days before Trump's inauguration - just months before the Trump Administration greenlit UAE access to advanced AI chips.

Below are Ranking Member Warren's remarks as delivered:

Mr. President, I urge the Senate to take up and pass S. Res. 598.

Last May, President Trump announced a deal to greenlight several billion dollars worth of advanced AI chips to the United Arab Emirates.

The deal alarmed national security officials.

Why in the world was Donald Trump rolling back critical national security safeguards in order to hand over sophisticated U.S. technology to a country with a long history of helping China acquire sensitive chips that it needs for its military?

Why in the world was Donald Trump trying to ship off our state-of-the-art chips to the UAE - and China - when American startups, American universities, and American small businesses needed them here at home?

Well, now we know. Now we know that the UAE greased the skids months earlier when it secretly agreed to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into a Trump family crypto venture just four days before President Trump's inauguration.

Now we know that a powerful Abu Dhabi royal known as "Spy Sheikh" signed a secret deal to pay half a billion dollars to take almost a majority stake in the Trump family's crypto company, World Liberty Financial.

And just a few months later, the Trump Administration and Secretary Howard Lutnick authorized the sale of advanced AI chips to the UAE. This was a victory for Abu Dhabi and the Spy Sheikh who had been unsuccessfully trying for years to get their hands on those chips.

Inside our own government, national security officials tried hard to stop this deal. They warned that handing advanced AI chips to the UAE would have serious national security consequences.

Some of these chips would go to the G42, a UAE AI company that American national security officials have said could be a conduit for funneling technology to China. The CIA has reportedly warned about G42's working closely with blacklisted firms like Huawei that are tied to the Chinese military.

Now, President Trump is denying that he knew anything about the secret deal.

Oh Please.

President Trump's own son signed the deal for half a billion dollars. An initial payment of $187 million dollars was reportedly directed to flow to Trump family companies.

Another initial payment of $31 million dollars was reportedly directed to flow into entities connected to the family of Steve Witkoff, Trump's golf buddy who had been named the U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East.

Here we are, one year into Donald Trump's second term, and Trump has amassed more than $1.5 billion from his crypto ventures like World Liberty Financial.

Trump is profiting off the Presidency while American families are worrying about their jobs, the rising cost of groceries, and how they're going to pay their bills.

Trump is profiting from decisions that make it easier for countries like China to get their hands on some of our most sensitive and advanced technologies.

Congress needs to grow a spine. We cannot allow American national security simply to be sold to the highest bidder.

The Senate must pass this resolution to condemn this corruption and call on Donald Trump to reverse his decision to allow the export of advanced AI chips to the UAE.

I yield the floor Mr. President.

###

• Print
• Email
• Tweet