Donald Trump, alleged by many to be President of the United States, has demanded that Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan resign immediately. Thanking the American public for our “attention to this matter,” Trump claims Tan is “conflicted” due to his investments in China.

I dare suggest that Tan respond as follows:

Mr. Trump is welcome to bring this up at Intel’s next shareholder meeting. If he is a voting stockholder. Which of course would violate the Ethics in Government Act and the STOCK Act.

Or perhaps as follows:

I in turn demand that Mr. Trump immediately resign the U.S. Presidency. He is conflicted, due to his ties to Russian intelligence agencies.

But, sigh, it is not to be. In an attempt at conciliation, not to mention an instance of the kind of fence-straddling illustrated in the photo above, Mr. Tan actually did respond in this way:

My reputation has been built on trust – on doing what I say I’ll do, and doing it the right way. This is the same way I am leading Intel…. I fully share the president’s commitment to advancing U.S. national and economic security, I appreciate his leadership to advance these priorities, and I’m proud to lead a company that is so central to these goals.

Unfortunately, this is not the “right way” to deal with DJT. Tan should have learned, when some law firms caved “after the president began targeting major law firms that hired lawyers he didn’t like or took up cases and clients he claimed went against his agenda” and from the Columbia University escapade. The lessons were that DJT regards conciliators as weak, and that as The Guardian says, “Settlements with Trump ‘will only fuel his authoritarian appetite.’”

Intel’s 20-year decline is not Tan’s fault, and Tan has had scant chance, in his four months as CEO, to fix it.

One may suspect an unstated motive for Trump’s rail against Tan. President Biden’s CHIPS Act awarded $2.2 billion dollars to Intel. To Trump, any idea of Biden’s is ipso facto a bad idea. To wit, note this headline: “Trump renegotiating CHIPS Act grants – putting billions for Intel, others, in question.”

In light of this chicanery, scapegoating Lip-Bu Tan is just so Trumpian.