Trump is tightening the screws on corporate America -- and CEOs are staying mum

[Septua]

17. On the topic of legality

I'm not questioning your opinion; I just can't comprehend the legaleeze.

https://www.cato.org/blog/nvidia-amds-deal-trump-administration-national-security-sale

It is, at best, questionable whether the reported agreement could withstand legal scrutiny. The text of Article I, Section 9 of the US Constitution—“No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State”—makes it clear that Congress cannot levy taxes on US exports. Thus, not only do the Trump administration’s actions appear to contravene the text of the Constitution, but they also raise a separation of powers issue, as it is the executive branch, not Congress, that is levying this tax.

That being said, it is unclear whether Nvidia and AMD are exporting their semiconductors from the United States. Both companies are “fabless” manufacturers, meaning that they design their chips but outsource their actual fabrication to TSMC. Though TSMC’s fabrication facility (“fab”) in Arizona has been operational since late 2024, reports suggest that it fabricates Nvidia and AMD chips other than the H20 and MI308, making it therefore likelier that both of these chips are fabricated in Taiwan. Were that indeed the case, and moreover were the chips to be exported to China from Taiwan (or any other foreign country, for that matter), the chips would be subject to the US government’s export controls under the Foreign Direct Product Rule, yet the case for a constitutional violation would seem weaker, as they are not “exported from any State.”