For the third time this year, President Trump authorized a crackdown on companies suspected of diverting Nvidia's advanced AI chips to China. Trump even consulted Elon Musk before giving the go-ahead last Thursday, Axios' Marc Caputo and Maria Curi scoop.

• One Cabinet member has repeatedly resisted export controls: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Why it matters: The standoff illustrates a breakdown in efforts to keep American technology out of China's hands, as the world wonders why the Trump administration hasn't been tougher on Nvidia.

• This reporting is based on interviews with six high-level sources who were briefed on or participated in the discussions.

Inside the room: On Thursday, as the Nvidia scandal rocked the administration, Lutnick met in the Situation Room with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who's also White House national security adviser.

• During the meeting, Bessent pointedly asked Lutnick why his department has resisted implementing export controls on Megaspeed and other companies, Axios first reported. The group sided with Bessent.
• Lutnick appeared to agree, but then muttered under his breath: "I need to check with the president."

The other side: Commerce Department press secretary Kristen Eichamer denied a confrontation. Lutnick has warned the controls could start a trade war with China.

Friction point: Officials have repeatedly believed the Commerce Department would impose export controls, only to have nothing happen.

• "He's stalling it out," said one official, saying Lutnick had previously met privately with the president to change his mind about the export limit.

This time, a person in the room called Lutnick's bluff by saying: "Great. Why don't we do it today?"

• Around 5 p.m., the group headed to the Oval Office.
• Trump called Elon Musk, then agreed to move forward. Musk supported the other Cabinet members' case for imposing controls. Lutnick warned it "will start a trade war with China."

Behind the scenes: With Lutnick the lone holdout, Trump made his decision. "Let's get it done," he said. But once everyone was outside of the Oval Office, Lutnick proposed a new delay tactic.

• "I'll develop some options and come back," Lutnick said.
• A source said: "Everyone was like: 'No, no, the decision's been made. Go f*cking execute.' ... Well, it still hasn't happened."

Flashback: On at least three occasions — in May, August, and Nov. 5 — Trump approved taking action against suspected diversions of Nvidia chips to China.

• But Lutnick and Commerce Undersecretary Jeffrey Kessler resisted pressure from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others to move forward.
• In May, a highly classified memo warning about Jensen Huang's relationship with Alice Huang, a Megaspeed employee suspected by U.S. intelligence of being a Chinese agent, was shared with the president and other officials.
• In a subsequent meeting, Bessent, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, Hegseth and White House officials pressed Lutnick and Kessler to act, the source said.

Share this story ... Go deeper with a scoop earlier today by Axios' Maria Curi and Marc Caputo, "Bessent confronts Lutnick in Situation Room over China inaction."

Drone delivery companies are scrambling to turn down the volume as neighborhood opposition threatens to ground their expansion plans, Axios' Joann Muller reports.

📦 Amazon last week abandoned plans for a drone delivery hub in suburban Boston after residents and lawmakers raised concerns about noise, safety and privacy.

• The company withdrew its application in Westborough, Mass., but left open the possibility of returning.

Rival Zipline says it has taught its drones to fly more quietly.

• Zipline's "dynamic flying" software lets each drone pick the quietest route in real time based on wind, speed and altitude, allowing drones to glide more efficiently, like a bird, instead of relying on noisy propellers.

✅ Reality check: Quieter doesn't necessarily mean quiet.

• As drone deliveries multiply, even relatively unobtrusive aircraft could become an unwelcome neighborhood nuisance.

Go deeper ... Get Axios Future of Mobility.

A young girl and her grandmother place their hands on the wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington during a Veterans Day event today.

President Trump, Vice President Vance and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins join a wreath-laying ceremony today at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, First Lady Melania Trump and Second Lady Usha Vance also attended.

Small mementos are left on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial today.

The southwest Georgia landscape that helped shape President Jimmy Carter's commitment to conservation is set to become permanently protected as public land, Axios Atlanta's Thomas Wheatley reports.

• The Conservation Fund's purchase of 2,458 acres of farmland and forests — including the Carter family's property outside Plains, Ga. — carries on an oft-overshadowed part of the humanitarian's legacy.

🌳 Stacy Funderburke, the nonprofit's vice president of the central Southeast region, said in a statement: "Long before Jimmy Carter protected millions of acres across America, he was a boy working the fields and roaming the woods of southwest Georgia."

• "This land shaped him and his legacy, and he never stopped coming home to it."

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